GoPro to move US-bound camera production out of China to avoid trade war tariffs
- Move comes despite 90-day truce agreed between US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping
- The sport camera company has seen its share price fall 35 per cent this year
GoPro will move most of its US-bound camera production out of China by the summer of 2019, becoming one of the first brand-name electronics makers to take such action to minimise the impact of the escalating trade war.
The company is still deciding where to relocate the manufacturing operation, although cameras headed for other countries will continue to be made in China.
“Today’s geopolitical business environment requires agility,” GoPro chief financial officer Brian McGee said on Monday.
“We’re proactively addressing tariff concerns.”
The trade war between the world’s two biggest economies has made more than US$250 billion of goods from China more expensive for Americans, from component pieces to electric scooters, and US President Donald Trump has threatened to place tariffs on all goods coming from China.
Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping agreed on December 1 to hold off on increasing tariffs for 90 days, but the arrest of Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou in Canada at the request of US authorities has stoked renewed fears of a further escalation.