Trump’s tariff can hit you in an unexpected place: your vinyl set

When the anarchist tariff for mathematics Donald Trump last week rocked the nerves of companies through almost every industry in America and all over the world, one of the small business owners in the San Francisco Bay region was trying to find out whether he could fall on its way through a gap.

Eric Mueleler of Punk Rock Record Label Pirates wondered whether he could classify his company’s records – which include colorful vinyl versions by teams such as Rancid, The Slackers and Cock Sparr – as media materials. Under an unknown law.

More than anything Muller hopes to find peace of mind. He says, “Volatility is crazy.” “We had a few dozen shipments left in the past few days, and we are trying to know what we are supposed to defend people!”

The Trump administration’s irregular approach, irregular, for customs tariffs is to waste general confusion during the records industry. Manufacturers and brokers, MOM -‘N’-POP and others, are aligned in realizing that any additional costs incurred by the customs tariff will be ultimately transferred to consumers. Even a 10 percent increase that Trump incurred (from this moment) can make the comprehensive customs tariff, which makes it negatively affect inflation and high costs. Modern industry estimates indicate that the proposed definitions can raise costs by 24 percent, and lead to more production abroad. Muller estimates that a new vinyl record may sell it for $ 30-40, an increase of 15 to 25 dollars just a few years ago.

He says: “Look at mathematics: The people’s income did not rise much.” “The industry is definitely receding. The factories are struggling. If the costs of the records rise, this is not a good thing. No one will help.”

But the exception of the potential industry to provide stickers comes from Berman modificationWhich provide exemptions for “media materials” such as books, movies, tapes, CDs and other media that contain materials protected by the first amendment, regardless of their country of origin. Approved by Congress in 1988, and was composed by Democratic actor Howard Berman, the amendment was one of the first obstacles in the United States ‘legislators’ attempts to ban Tijook, with a Washington After the title called “A mysterious obstacle“

“What this exemption is doing,” Muller explains, “Make sure that there is still a free flow of information.”

The representative of the American Registration Industry Association, a commercial organization that represents the American music industry, confirms that “the current understanding” is that the records of the records are compared to the Trump tariff.

As for the recordings industry, this is good news. Despite the rise in local manufacturing over the past decade, which was followed by the popularity of a recovery in the vinyl records itself, many albums that store the shelves of the registration stores abroad are manufactured. The Czech -based GZ Media is the largest record in the world, preceding about 70 million records annually. Under the current amendment points in Berman, all of these records can be imported in the United States without being affected by the massive tariffs. But this does not mean that the American vinyl industry is outside the forest. (GZ spokesman refused to speak to WIRED, saying that the company “decided not to comment on the topics related to politics or definitions.”