This morning the New York Times reports that tariffs from China will drop to 30 percent for 90 days.
While this is ostensibly good news, a 90-day reduction is not a long-term deal, but the hope is that this is enough time to be able to negotiate a more permanent deal so that there is some level of predictability moving forward into the holiday season and into 2026.
How this timing will affect Q4 for toys remains to be seen, but it will undoubtedly force toymakers to scramble to get toys into, or through, production in order to be landed by August when this current arrangement will expire. Logistics and operations Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut was quick to point out on X (formerly Twitter), that a 90-day reduction is not a deal.
Toy Cos left New York Toy Fair with the assumption that tariff rates would be 20 percent, only to be slapped with the 145 percent tariff on April 9. Since then, the Toy Association has been actively working to promote #notariffontoys.
Indeed, as we and others, have been saying, when we consider the value of toys and the toy industry, rather than the literal cost of product, the U.S. is way ahead. Between design, retail, marketing, licensing, and many more, toys and the toy industry create significantly more value in the U.S. and China. It is long past time to reconsider the notion of a trade deficit in this light, given the global infrastructure of the toy industry.
As they say, this is a developing story.
