"Since Donald Trump entered the White House for the second time, the US import taxes faced by Morph, which supplies Walmart and Target, have lurched wildly-from zero tariffs to 20% tariffs to 50% tariffs, before briefly flirting with 145% tariffs. The figure fell back to 20%, before the Supreme Court intervention last week ruled the tariffs illegal, which brought them back down to zero."
"Morph Costumes is a Main Street example of tariff effects. It makes its costumes in China, which has a 30-year start on the rest of the world in the business of clothing production. Moving production elsewhere is prohibitively expensive."
""It is certainly not good for investment," Smeaton tells me, with the wry understatement common to Scots. "Or for the US consumer. They are paying higher prices." Morph Costume's outfits now cost 9% more, after Smeaton's business was hit by a $3 million duty bill, wiping out most of its profits."
Morph Costumes, a Scottish company founded by Fraser Smeaton, manufactures full-body spandex costumes in China and supplies major US retailers like Walmart and Target. Since Trump's second presidency, the company has experienced extreme tariff volatility, with rates swinging from zero to 20%, 50%, and briefly 145% before settling at 20%, then returning to zero following Supreme Court intervention, with a new 10% tariff subsequently announced. This unpredictability has devastated the business, resulting in a $3 million duty bill that eliminated most profits and forced a 9% price increase on costumes. Smeaton emphasizes the tariffs harm both business investment and US consumers through higher prices.
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