President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Friday that his administration is "doing a major Tariff Investigation on Furniture coming into the United States." What exactly the president is investigating is unclear, but the consequence of hiking tariffs on imported furniture is higher prices for cribs, beds, tables, chairs, and all those things that make a house a home.
Trump's announcement comes nearly six months after his March 1 executive order calling for an investigation into the "Threat to National Security From Imports of Timber, Lumber, and Their Derivative Products," which the Commerce Department began on March 10. Trump elaborated that the furniture investigation will be completed in 50 days and that, at that time, "furniture coming from other Countries into the United States will be Tariffed at a Rate yet to be determined."
Reuters reports that the furniture tariffs "would be conducted under the Section 232 national security statute," which the president has used to levy a 50 percent duty on imported steel, aluminum, and derivative products. Whatever rate the Trump administration lands on, the Section 232 tariffs will replace the 10 percent baseline reciprocal tariff that importers have been paying since April 5.
