Ikea warns Trump’s tariffs could push up prices

The chief executive of the company behind Ikea furniture stores says Donald Trump’s planned tariffs will make it more difficult to keep its prices low, joining a growing chorus of business leaders in warning of a potential hit to people’s wallets from the levies.

The chief executive of the company behind Ikea furniture stores says Donald Trump’s planned tariffs will make it more difficult to keep its prices low, joining a growing chorus of business leaders in warning of a potential hit to people’s wallets from the levies. “We believe tariffs will not support… international companies and international trade, with, at the end of the day, that risk turned up on the bills of customers,” Jesper Brodin, Ingka Group CEO, told CNN Wednesday ahead of the opening of Ikea’s pop-up store on London’s Oxford Street Thursday. “Tariffs make it more difficult for us to maintain the low prices and be affordable for many people, which in the end is our goal,” he added. “We have never experienced a period of benefit when we had high tariffs,” he said, referring both to Ikea and the global economy. “But it’s beyond our control. We will need to understand and adapt.” On Monday, President-elect Trump promised massive hikes in tariffs on goods coming from Mexico, Canada and China. In response, officials from those countries warned that the tariffs would harm the economies of all involved, including the United States. “One tariff will be followed by another in response and so on until we put common enterprises at risk,” Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday during a regular press conference. Business lobby groups for the US retail and consumer goods industries have also sounded the alarm. Tom Madrecki, vice-president of campaigns and special projects at the Consumer Brands Association, told CNN tariffs were a “clear and present danger” to its members. The group represents Coca-Cola, General Mills, Molson Coors and dozens of other packaged goods companies.