How Trump’s Tariffs on China Are Affecting Toy Companies

At the biggest toy industry trade show in the Western Hemisphere this weekend, toy makers, as usual, displayed seemingly endless rows of stuffed animals, action figures and puzzles, hoping to entice retailers to pick their products.

But this year, the chatter at Toy Fair New York was dominated not by the next Barbie, but a larger game, one of global tactics, that could make most toys more expensive for U.S. consumers.

Almost 80 percent of toys sold in the United States are made in China. Last week, just as toy vendors from across the United States and dozens of other countries started to flock to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for the annual toy fair, President Trump announced a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods that would come on top of the 10 percent he already imposed a month ago.

Companies big and small — from family-owned brands to household names — are trying to figure out how to manage the new costs related to tariffs. Stationed at a booth lined with plush stuffed animals, Linda Colson, the vice president of sales at Mary Meyer Corporation, said her company, based in Vermont, was in a state of paralysis over pricing. “We don’t know what to do,” she said. “I think a lot of people in this building are just waiting to see what everybody else is doing.”