Amazon backs down on tariff pricing plan after White House calls it 'hostile'

Amazon said on Tuesday its low-cost Haul unit had considered listing import charges for goods in light of new U.S. tariffs but denied looking at such a plan for its main website after the White House accused it of a hostile political act.

The Seattle retailer spent a chaotic morning denying a report from Punchbowl News that it planned to display prices showing tariffs' impact on Amazon.com. It acknowledged it had considered it for certain inexpensive China-made products on Haul but then rejected the idea.

The confusion initially prompted a 2-percent drop in Amazon shares after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the reported pricing plan "a hostile and political act by Amazon."

"Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?" Leavitt said at a press briefing with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. She urged Americans to "buy American."

Earlier Tuesday, Punchbowl News reported that Amazon intends to display the tariff costs imposed under the Trump's administration as part of each product's price.

"Amazon doesn't want to shoulder the blame for the cost of President Donald Trump's trade war. So the e-commerce giant will soon show how much Trump's tariffs are adding to the price of each product," the report said, citing a source familiar with the plan.

Trump called Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos to complain about the Punchbowl News report, a White House official said.

"Jeff Bezos is very nice," Trump told reporters. "He solved the problem very quickly. He did the right thing."

Trump has imposed a tsunami of tariffs on U.S. trading partners, including China which has seen tariff costs rise by 145 percent since Trump took office, sending many corporations scrambling.

Many retailers have voiced concerns about the additional costs imposed by tariffs. In a report earlier this month, Best Buy executives said new tariffs "could increase costs, disrupt our supply chain and/or impact the availability of underlying technology critical to our operations."

(With input from Reuters, Xinhua)