Impact of Higher Tariffs on Imported Kitchen Cabinets and Bathroom Vanities

Has President Trump determined that imports of kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities threaten U.S. national economic security? In an executive order issued on September 29, the president announced that he would slap higher tariffs on imported kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities. While media analysts have tended to focus on the impact these higher levies would have on housing construction costs, the taxes are also likely to reduce the volume of containerized imports through U.S. seaports.

A decade ago, China dominated the trade in imported wooden kitchen furniture (HS 940340) with a 61.9% share. By last year, its share had collapsed to a mere 1.7% as the volume of imports from Vietnam (including some from Chinese-owned factories) soared. Exhibit 8 displays the shifts in the wooden kitchen furniture import trade since 2014 through the first seven months of this year.

For the bulk of the import trade shipped by sea, 30.0% of all U.S. containerized imports of wooden kitchen furniture (HS 940340) arrived at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach last year. The Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle handled another 5.4%, while 3.1% of the inbound trade came in through the Port of Oakland.

Exhibit 9 shows the top overseas sources of wooden kitchen furniture imports last year.

Exhibit 10 displays the shares held by ports handling appreciable volumes of wooden kitchen furniture. Perhaps the most interesting revelation is that Florida’s ports collectively accounted for a 13.4% slice of imports. In contrast to USWC ports, Florida’s ports count Mexico and Italy among their top five sources of imported wooden kitchen furniture.

Bathroom vanities come in under a different HS code, HS 940360. Exhibit 11 displays the leading U.S. ports handling this commodity.

Again, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach constitute the leading gateway for these imports with a 35.7% share of containerized import tonnage last year. The Port of New York/New Jersey placed second with a 19.5% share, while Savannah came next with a 12.8% share. The Northwest Seaport Alliance (6.1%) and the Port of Oakland (2.5%) rounded out the USWC share.