Name: Samsung North America CEO Says Company Will Feel Effect of Trump's Tariffs
Uploaded: 2018-05-14
Duration: 5 min 30 s
Description: Tim Baxter says that the new regulations will prompt a price increase on some of its products to compensate.

[ MUSIC ] Let's talk a little bit about trade. As you know, President Trump has approved huge tariffs on many imported items, including washing machines that are made by Samsung, some of them imported here, some of them built out of South Carolina. Facility, how are you responding to these tariffs? In the case of our laundry products, our view has been and continues to be that tariffs equal taxes and they get passed along to consumers. And so we don't think that's a good thing. In the case of the laundry products we have had to raise prices, in some cases, and we don't that's necessarily a good thing. How much have you raised prices? Fifty to 100 dollars on select models. I think more broadly, I think we understand we understand the broader strategies associated with protecting intelectual property and managing the trade imbalances and I think that's the bigger. Strategy at play. Tariffs, however, we view as forms of taxes and generally get passed down. I understand that you're planning to add more jobs at this new South Carolina facility. Now with these tariffs are you changing your hiring plans? No, we're not, Samsung opened a laundry factory in Newberry, South Carolina in January of this year. We have hired over 650 employees. And so, we're proud of what we're doing. We just announced the second line as up and running. So, we're moving full steam ahead on that regardless of what has taken place with tariffs. Tim increasingly, we're hearing people talking now about a trade war, what do you think the chances are of that happening? I'm hopeful they will not be that I think consequences are significant. So, our hope is that tariffs will not be the tool that is the primary one that would escalated. But i'm company that that would be mitigated. Uh- hm, let's see there is a trade war, what would be the impact of that. On your business? Well I think it's hard to state the impact until you know what products and what devices and what compenents. If obviously it got much wider than the list today, I think the implications could be greater. But right now, The implications for us are quite modest and we are working to identify how you manage that, how you manage supplies, how you manage parts to be able to mitigate it. Well the US market is huge for Samsung and Samsung products How are you responding to these White House developments? Well, I think a big part of it is engaging with the White House, articulating- Have you talked to President Trump? I personally have not talked to president. I've talked to many in the administration. And we articulate very clearly Samsung is a company that has a 40 year history here in the US, right? We have 20, 000 Employees here in the U. S. We've invested over $ 30 billion in the United States, including 17 billion into our semiconductor facility in Austin, and we continue to invest. So how do you think Samsung is going to do In 2018. By the end of the year, what will we be saying about Samsung's performance in terms of the US business environment? Well, I think if you would look at it, this is the fourth quarter with record profits, driven heavily by our Semiconductor business and we feel confident that that will continue. We see other categories in our businesses that will expect to be stronger as well, whether it's in the television space. Our mobile phones have been very well received. And the market for a mobile phone says, it clearly had that hit some level of maturity, we understand that and consumers are hanging onto devices. However they're buying more and more premium devices. So, the average selling price is going up. Now, well let's talk a little bit about cell phone because we got the latest Galaxy that came out two months ago, the S9 A lot of new features, how is it doing? Yeah the sales are good on that, and we're seeing people moving up to the Plus. We're also seeing a trend that more and more consumers are buying Bigger screens and more of the premium devices than they were at the entry level and we think that's an important part of the sales value proposition. I think it's fair to say that just about everyone compares Samsung products with Apple and the tech reports that I've looked at have said great things about your new S9, some of the new features. But it still looks like Apple is winning the popularity contest. What's your strategy to compete with Apple? It's clearly a powerful brand. Here in the U. S ., we have roughly about a one- third of the market And it is something that we're continuing to strive to improve upon. And our focus has been bringing innovation to market first and fast. And our most passionate consumers appreciate that. We were the first to bring out a large screen, we were the first to put pen in there, the first to make it waterproof. So bringing that innovation out is a big part of our strategy. And our consumers demand and expect that. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Samsung North America CEO Says Company Will Feel Effect of Trump's Tariffs

Politics

Tim Baxter says that the new regulations will prompt a price increase on some of its products to compensate.