that's where they get you Trump admin lashes out as Amazon considers displaying tariff costs on its sites "This was never approved and is not going to happen," says Amazon. Andrew Cunningham – Apr 29, 2025 2:03 pm | 52 Palo Alto, CA, USA - Feb 18, 2020: The Amazon logo seen at Amazon campus in Palo Alto, California. Credit: Getty Palo Alto, CA, USA - Feb 18, 2020: The Amazon logo seen at Amazon campus in Palo Alto, California. Credit: Getty Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more This morning, Punchbowl News reported that Amazon was considering listing the cost of tariffs as a separate line item on its site, citing "a person familiar with the plan." Amazon later acknowledged that there had been internal discussions to that effect but only for its import-focused Amazon Haul sub-store and that the company didn't plan to actually list tariff prices for any items. "This was never approved and is not going to happen," reads Amazon's two-sentence statement. Amazon issued such a specific and forceful on-the-record denial in part because it had drawn the ire of the Trump administration. In a press briefing early this morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked a question about the report, which the administration responded to as though Amazon had made a formal announcement about the policy. "This is a hostile and political act by Amazon," Leavitt said, before blaming the Biden administration for high inflation and claiming that Amazon had "partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm." The Washington Post also reported that Trump had called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to complain about the report. Amazon's internal discussions reflect the current confusion around the severe and rapidly changing import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, particularly tariffs of 145 percent on goods imported from China. Other retailers, particularly sites like Temu, AliExpress, and Shein, have all taken their own steps, either adding labels to listings when import taxes have already been included in the price, or adding import taxes as a separate line item in users' carts at checkout as Amazon had discussed doing. A Temu cart showing the price of an item's import tax as a separate line item. Amazon reportedly considered and discarded a similar idea for its Amazon Haul sub-site. Small purchases are seeing big hits Most of these items are currently excluded from tariffs because of something called the de minimis exemption, which applies to any shipment valued under $800. The administration currently plans to end the de minimis exemption for packages coming from China or Hong Kong beginning on May 2, though the administration's plans could change (as they frequently have before). The end of the de minimis exemption will hit tech enthusiasts particularly hard, affecting everything from mechanical keyboards to 3D printer parts to retro emulation consoles to Raspberry Pi- and Arduino-related odds and ends. Shoppers who use sites like Temu and Shein to buy cheap clothing will also be affected disproportionately. Smartphones and computers are exempt from the new tariffs, at least for now, but this won't extend to many accessories and components. Reddit users on the /r/temuthings board have been posting screenshots of tariff-inflated shopping carts for days. As of this morning, the Temu site began listing any items that shipped from China as "sold out" to users shopping from the US (here's a sample listing that was available as of 10 am Eastern, which listed as sold out in the US by noon but is still available if you choose to shop from another country). Some manufacturers have also either built tariff increases into the retail prices for their products or stopped shipping certain products to the US. Keyboard-maker Logitech quietly raised prices for about half of its products last week. Nintendo delayed preorders of its new Switch 2 console and increased prices for controllers and other accessories following the tariff announcements. Retro console-maker Anbernic stopped shipping to the US entirely; modular laptop company Framework briefly paused US sales for some low-end systems. These are just a few examples. Even if the Trump administration lowers some tariffs or keeps some form of the de minimis exemption in place, the nature of global supply chains means some damage has already been done and that retailers like Amazon and Temu could have fewer options for restocking once already-imported US-based stock has been depleted. Bloomberg reports that the volume of cargo heading from China to the US is down by "about 40 percent from this year's peak" and that restarting shipments could cause delays at US ports similar to those seen in 2021 and 2022, which could also reduce supply and increase prices. Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 52 Comments