Trump’s tariff policy disrupts MFP production.

 

As Donald Trump promises to impose a tariff hike on goods coming into the US as soon as he takes office in January, print OEM Ricoh is reportedly planning to move some of its production out of China.

 

According to Nikkei Asia, Ricoh will move the manufacture of MFP devices destined for the US from its facilities in China to Thailand. The US accounts for around 20 per cent of Ricoh’s global sales, so higher tariffs will clearly have an impact.

 

The company made a similar move in 2019 during the first Trump administration. In May of that year, it also shifted production of its key MFP portfolio sold in the US to Thailand to hedge risk in the US-China trade dispute taking place at the time. That involved A3 devices; the forthcoming changes are thought to relate mainly to A4 machines.

 

In July 2020, Ricoh started the mass production of office printing devices at a new location in China’s Guangdong province. This site will still export products to markets such as Japan and Europe.

 

For more on this story and other global news from OPI, go to https://www.opi.net/news/region/001-north-america/ricoh-eyeing-productio...

 

Australia ‘not out of the woods’

 

An economics professor has warned Australia is “not out of the woods” after Donald Trump vowed to impose new tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada when he enters the White House.

 

Though Trump’s tariff plan appears contained to China, Canada and Mexico, UNSW Professor Richard  Holden warned Australia might not be able to escape the potential impacts of these measures.

 

“They're going to be enacted on Canada, Mexico and China on day one. There's a couple things about that. One is that this is probably the start of Trump tariffs, not the end,” the professor told SkyNews.com.au on Tuesday.

 

“And so even though ... these don't directly affect Australia, we're certainly not out of the woods.”

 

Professor Holden also raised the possibility of a “global tariff war” as part of the fallout from Trump’s tariff plan, in which countries might start to slap tariffs on the US in retaliation.

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