HIGH POINT — The furniture industry was handed a welcome piece of promising news heading into the spring market, with U.S. Customs opening a portal for refunds of some of the tariffs levied by the administration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which the Supreme Court struck down earlier this year.
Importers across the spectrum in High Point told sister pub Furniture Today that they are applying through that portal, with most saying they have already done so.
Decision makers are operating under the assumption of receiving some sort of refund, but the exact timeline remains unclear. Compounding that uncertainty is the prospect of new levies potentially coming under different tariff authorities.
For Meridian Furniture, the process itself has been straightforward, even if the outcome remains uncertain.
“We’ve applied, and I think they at least made the process super easy,” said Moe Rosilio, chief operating officer. “But nobody seems to know exactly what the timeline is. They’ve said up to 90 days, but we will see. Whatever comes, comes.”
Elements International, a value-focused importer with strong domestic warehousing operations providing some buffer, is taking a similarly cautious approach given continued murkiness in the future outlook.
“We’re working on applying and going through the proper channels there, and we’ll see what happens,” said CEO Paul Comrie. “We’re optimistic that we’ll get some money, but at the same time, you know, we haven’t got it yet. And who knows what lies ahead?”
For some companies, navigating the refund process is about being a partner for suppliers amidst the volatility.
That’s the case for Gigacloud Technology, a wholesale solutions provider and transacting platform for large parcel merchandise, which recently purchased New Classic Furniture.
“The benefit of the B2B marketplace is that we’re transacting onshore with significant warehousing capacity,” said Iman Shrock, president. “The manufacturers who import would be responsible, but there are instances where we may have some involvement in a supporting role with our tariff attorneys. But it’s still kind of messy.”
Others are relying on forwarding and customs specialists to manage the details.
“We have a forwarding company that is handling the refund process for us. They manage all of that,” said Kevin Castellani, president of operations at Lifestyle Enterprises. “So they’ll apply, like I’m sure everybody [will]. I’m not sure how much money is actually there, but we don’t know how long it’s going to take.”
For importers that absorbed tariff costs before price adjustments could be made, the refunds could help recoup months of margin pressure.
“Yes, we absolutely are going to apply for it,” said Crystal Nguyen, vice president of merchandise and strategic product planning at Coaster Fine Furniture. “The tariffs started almost overnight… so we had to start paying tariffs almost immediately out of the gate. But we only publish two price lists a year. So we were paying tariffs (out-of-pocket) for four to five months before we even had a price list change.”
Even with the refund portal open and applications underway, the mood across High Point shows that vendors broadly expect some level of reimbursement, but questions remain about how quickly funds will be distributed and how much companies will ultimately receive.
