11/10/25 Internal Tariff Response

Frequently Asked Tariff Question:

Date: Began November 10, 2025 - current

QUESTION:

If the tariff is reduced, why is it still a line item?
Why is there a tariff?

EXPLANATION:
INTERNAL USE- DO NOT CUT AND PASTE 

We currently apply a 20% tariff surcharge to most products from China.

This is a result of two factors:

1. The increase in tariffs added this year.
2. The elimination of de minimis.
   
   

The tariff increases this year on our shades from China added 20% (after the recent 10% reduction in the fentanyl tariff) on the cost we pay our factories. That means that we pay a total of 51.6% in duties and tariffs on cost for our bamboo products and 38.8% in duties and tariffs on cost for fabric shades.

The elimination of de minimis has a bigger impact on us. De minimis was a rule that any import valued at less than $800 did not attract duties and tariffs. About 2/3 of our orders are worth less than $800 at factory cost, so we paid no duty at all on 2/3 of our shipments in the past. When the first round of tariffs was applied in 2017, our price adjustments were very small because most orders were not affected because of this de minimis rule.  

Now we pay duties and tariffs on every single order, no matter how small. We even pay duties and tariffs on no cost remakes, parts shipments, and other miscellaneous orders.

These changes serve to more than quadruple our expected duty cost and represent a huge, unanticipated financial burden on our company.

We applied a tariff surcharge because these changes happened so quickly with no warning. Our competitors, who mainly make shades in Mexico have inventory and so the impact of tariffs is delayed, or they may be able to avoid tariffs if the product qualifies as Mexican product under the Free Trade Agreement with Mexico. We import directly from China, and the tariffs were applied with immediate effect.

The 20% tariff surcharge does not recover all our costs, and it should be noted that we did not take a price increase this year and we hope not to have to apply one next year.

PROPOSED RESPONSE:

On November 10th, 2025, there was a 10% tariff reduction applied to products imported China. Despite this decrease, the 20% tariff surcharge does not recover all our tariff and duty costs.
If there is a significant reduction, we will be sure to communicate that.