Walmart customers beware, price increases could be on the horizon.
Walmart CFO Brett Biggs said Thursday that the company will raise prices if new tariffs come into play.
"We're going to continue to do everything we can to keep prices low. That's who we are," Biggs said in a call with reporters. "However, increased tariffs will lead to increase prices, we believe, for our customers."
Walmart US CEO Greg Foran said the company would work with suppliers to try to keep prices down.
"We'll maintain price leadership in the marketplace," he said. "We're working closely with domestic and international suppliers to drive higher efficiency and reduce costs."
The executives declined to elaborate on which items or categories would be hit hardest by price increases.
The US-China trade war escalated this past week after both sides imposed fresh tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's goods. Now, the Trump administration is threatening to impose tariffs on a further $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, which include everything from phones to clothing and furniture and would put Walmart directly in the firing line.
This isn't the first time Walmart has spoken out against tariffs. Last October, it sent a letter to the US Trade Representative, urging it to reconsider tariffs imposed on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and warned that these tariffs would likely result in it having to raise prices for the consumer.
"As the largest retailer in the United States and a major buyer of U.S. manufactured goods, we are very concerned about the impacts these tariffs would have on our business, our customers, our suppliers and the U.S. economy as a whole," Walmart wrote, according to Reuters.
