Billionaire investor Mark Cuban has raised concerns about how new US trade deficit policies could impact e-commerce giant, Amazon. Cuban referred to an X post that says that the United States allows foreign companies to import goods into the U.S. as foreign importers of record without creating a local entity or hiring anyone in the U.S. “Countries that don’t allow American companies to import into their country without creating a local entity include Vietnam, Mexico, India, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and many others,” the post reads.
“Expect this barrier to be part of the reciprocal tariffs coming out next month. They will target non tariff barriers to balanced trade as well as duty rate disparities,” it further adds. Quoting the post, Cuban wrote “What does this do to Amazon?”.
Donald Trump‘s reciprocal tariffs refer to his trade policy idea that the US should impose tariffs on foreign goods equal to the tariffs that other countries place on American products. Essentially, if another country charges a 25% tariff on US exports, the US would respond by imposing a 25% tariff on their imports.
He often criticized countries like China, the European Union, and Canada for having what he saw as unfair trade barriers against American goods.
Amazon reportedly relies heavily on international imports. The reciprocal tariffs could impact the e-commerce giant’s low-margin business.
When a user asked “if tariffs are so terrible why does literally every country the US trades with charge them?”, Cuban replied saying “It’s not about whether they are good or bad. It’s how you use them. Strategically they are great. They can help domestic industries”
He further stated that if one wants “to use them to offset income taxes, that’s a different purpose. To offset OT, social security and tip taxes means you need a lot of tariffs on a lot of products. As Lutnick says, that’s a consumption tax.”
“So the question is, if your taxes aren’t being reduced , are they good or bad ? Maybe it depends on whether you think a consumption tax is good. The math doesn’t math,” he added.
