The trade war with China was a key topic on the KPBS Friday Business Report. BottomLine Marketing co-Founder Miro Copic discussed how a new round of tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports would impact the average consumer. The current tariffs have already added over $850 in additional costs per US household. The new tariffs can add between $200 – $400 in additional costs, wiping out wage gains made by American households. The market dropped over 700 points reacting to a devaluation of China’s currency and their decision to stop all US agricultural imports. Negotiations between the two sides are expected to resume in September.
On more upbeat news, Copic discussed the announcement by Disney of their new streaming service combining HULU, ESPN and Disney programming. By removing all Disney movies from Netflix, this signals the first salvo in then content wars. While this service could be very attractive to consumers, consumers should be prepared to pay a lot more for content in the future.
Finally, “fake” meat is a topic with Beyond Meat announcing a test with Subway and Impossible Foods announcing a production agreement with meat co-packer OSI to produce their product to meet demand. Impossible Foods started the year serving over 5,000 restaurants and they expect to service over 17,000 by year end. Their facility in Oakland cannot keep up with demand. (KPBS News – 8/9/19)
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