EVCO International is a small business in Manalapan, New Jersey that imports marble kitchenware and bath accessories from Indonesia and India and kettles from Thailand. When GSP expired and EVCO tried to raises prices, sales fell. Higher costs impacted both EVCO’s US sales and its exports from New Jersey to South America, Europe, Canada. As Evco President Les Koenig puts it:
“Despite our attention to design, color, and style, many retailers consider our products to fall under the commodity goods umbrella (very basic) and as such, will not pay increased costs. Margins are crucial to us, and lack of GSP really hurt.”
The company ended up paying about $90,000 in tariffs while GSP was expired. Like many others, Evco still waiting on some of those refunds a full year after GSP went back into effect. With GSP back in place, the company no longer has to absorb the tariff costs and can shift its focus back to where it belongs: design, color, and style.
EVCO provided the above information in response to our GSP renewal impacts survey. If you have not done so already, please take a minute to answer these questions today. As always, all data will be kept confidential and no company-specific answers will be attributed unless permission is explicitly granted.
