When the chaos of President Donald Trump's tariffs last week shook companies of companies on almost every industry in the US and around the globe, a small business owner in the San Francisco Bay area is trying to find if he could overcome a hole.
Eric Mueller of Rock Punk Pirates Press has wondered if he can classify his company's records, which includes color vinyl releases of bands such as Rancid, The Slackers and Cock Sparrer, as information document. Doing so will allow documents to be imported from urgent factories abroad without having to be taxed under the lesser law.
More than anything Mueller is hoping to find peace of mind. The fluctuations are crazy, he said. We have had a few dozen shipments left in the past few days and we are trying to find out what we have to make invoices for everyone!
The Trump administration's once again approach, once again for tariffs, is to spread the common mistake throughout the recording industry. Manufacturers and brokers, mothers and pop and otherwise, are linked to realize that any additional costs arising by the final tariff will be transferred to consumers. Even an increase in 10 percent arising by Trump (since this time) was revised, the tariffs across the whole can create a significant relationship in an industry that has been negatively affected by inflation and increased costs. The recent estimate of the industry shows that the proposed tax rate may increase the cost of 24 % and can lead to more limited production. Mueller estimates that a new vinyl record can retail from $ 30 to 40, up from $ 15 to $ 25 just a few years ago.
Look at mathematics: Everyone's income did not go up so much, he said. The industry is definitely regression. Factories are facing difficulties. If the application cost increases, it is not a good thing. It will not help anyone.
But the exception of saving labels and potentials of the industry comes from Modify BermanIn which provides exemptions for the Viking information documents such as books, movies, tapes, CDs and other media containing documents protected according to the first amendment, regardless of their origin. Adopted by the National Assembly in 1988 and was authored by Democratic Representative Howard Berman, the revised version was one of the earliest obstacles in the legislators to ban Tiktok, with a title of Washington Post called it.A dark obstacle. “
What this exemption is, Mueller explains, ensuring there is still a free flow of information.
A representative of the American recording industry association, a trade organization representing the US music industry, confirmed that Muslim's current understanding is to import files excluded from Trump's tariffs.
For the recording industry, it is good news. Despite the increase in home production over the past decade, following the popularity of Vinyl Records itself, many albums store the shelves of recording stores produced abroad. The GZ Media Group is based in the Czech is the largest recording machine in the world, creating about 70 million copies a year. According to the current amendments of Berman, all of these records can be imported without being affected by large tax rates. But that does not mean that the US vinyl industry has been out of the forest. (GZ spokesman refused to talk to Wired, saying that the company decided not to comment on political or tariff -related topics.