by HIGH POINT — As President Trump’s “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs were announced Wednesday, home industry veterans found themselves attempting to gauge the impacts of these across-the-board tariffs.
To get their reactions, I asked them to weigh in on my Facebook page. What follows is a representative sampling of what they said.
Jerod Lazan, co-owner of California-based Mortise & Tenon, a maker of bench-made wood, upholstered and metal home furnishings, sees the tariffs as “ a horrible move” and one that will “destroy the American brand for generations.”
Lazan went on to say, “With our economy built around American consumption/globalization, this will be a disaster, calculated to cost the average American family $5,000-plus … to survive yearly.”
Richard Tubman, who co-founded New England-based Circle Furniture, also believes the Trump tariffs will hurt the economy. He suggested that I look at what Reagan had to say about tariffs. He also suggested I look at what virtually any economist says about tariffs.
As for Reagan’s comments, I am pretty sure Tubman was referring to a radio speech made by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan some 40 years ago. As part of that speech, the then-40th president asked people to beware of trade wars and “demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends.”
Reagan went on to say, “At first, when someone says let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports, it looks like they are doing a patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. Sometimes, for a short while, it works, but only for a short time,” Reagan said in the speech.
He added, “What eventually occurs is, first homegrown industries start relying on government protections in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and stop making innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets.”
Joe Savovic, president and CEO of Soundstage USA LLC, told me he thinks “the price increases for almost every industry will be apocalyptic in ways unimaginable. As far as the midpriced furniture tier, it wipes out the popular midprice points on virtually all home furnishings.”
Savovic also said, “The jobs this supposedly creates will need to be super-paying jobs for those workers to be able to afford anything.”
Others, including Peter Parisette, who has been involved in producing home furnishings here, were hopeful that the tariffs might set the stage for more domestic manufacturing.
Parisette said, “Hopefully, more manufacturing in Carolina again.” He also was optimistic that the tariffs might also encourage “the details of design and marketing and partnerships with other key suppliers.”
Perhaps the most telling indicator came from Sean O’Connor, president of Universal Furniture, who sent me a link to an article in a news publication from Vietnam called Vietnam+.
According to the article, which you can read here, on March 31, in anticipation of Trump’s tariffs, the Vietnamese government cut import taxes on a host of goods.
The most striking move, however, is the slash of import taxes on wood and wooden products, including coat hangers, chairs and furniture, from 20%-25% to a uniform 0%.
The Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association (Viforest) and the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City had earlier proposed revising the import tariffs on U.S. wood products to minimize the risk of potential retaliatory tariffs from the U.S.
A HAWA leader said that the tax cuts were a “swift, positive and timely” move, showcasing Vietnam’s goodwill.
According to Viforest, although wood products have just been imported into Vietnam in recent years, the import value has grown rapidly. In 2024, Vietnam spent $316.3 million USD on U.S. wood imports, a 32% increase in quantity and over a 34% rise in value compared to 2023. Vietnam, Viforest says, is now the second-largest consumer of U.S. wood in Asia and the fourth-largest globally.
For the time being, the question of will other countries follow the example of Vietnam remains unanswered.
What is clear is that we are clearly in unchartered waters.
“Obviously, this is not something we had hoped for and it’s going to be incredibly disruptive to our business and to the industry,” said John DeFalco, senior executive vice president, Primo International. ” While Trump promised tariffs, I think few anticipated they would be at the levels he announced this week.
“Now, we must hope that these countries understand that Trump is not going to go quietly into the night, that they’re going to have to come back to this country with reasonable solutions.”
Hopefully, we end up with a rational tariff rate at the end so that we can quickly get back to doing business.
John Pinion IV, a veteran independent sales representative and past president of the International Home Furnishings Representatives Association, perhaps said it best: “One thing is for sure. You better strap up because the roller-coaster ride that has never been experienced is about to start.”
Others continue to think that all this is part of Trump’s efforts to gain results through negotiation no matter how challenging it may seem in the short term.
“We understand this is part of an ongoing negotiation process with an outcome yet to be determined,” said Todd Wanek, president and chief executive officer of Ashley Furniture. “As the largest furniture manufacturer in the United States, Ashley is well-positioned to continue providing excellent service to our customers.”
“While the tariffs issued by the Trump administration are highly concerning when taken at face value, we believe this is a negotiation tactic,” said Christian Rohrbach, president of case goods importer A-America. “There will likely be significant changes to the tariff amounts once foreign trade delegations engage with our side. We remain confident in our diverse supply chain that has production spread strategically over many strong furniture-producing countries.”
Home News Now Editor-in-Chief Tom Russell contributed to this report.
