The Element TV company assembly plant in Winnsboro, S.C., is scheduled to lay off 124 (94%) of its workers by October because of ???the new tariffs that were recently and unexpectedly imposed on many goods imported from China, including the key television components used in our assembly operations.???
In June of 2014, Walmart created a You Tube video that boasted: ???Because of Walmart’s commitment to domestic manufacturing, Element Electronics is able to bring back jobs and electronic manufacturing to the United States.???
Because Element relies on Chinese parts for its TVs, new tariffs imposed by the White House make the cost of Element TVs exceed the price it agreed to charge Walmart.
If Walmart holds Element to its contract, these American jobs are gone.
Walmart could save this company by amending its contract to adjust its unit costs to reflect the cost of the Trump tariffs.
Here is the feel good You Tube video that Walmart created 4 years ago, when it announced that it had signed a deal with this American TV company which would bring back jobs to South Carolina.
What Walmart did not reveal in the video is that Element Electronics had to agree to sell its TVs to Walmart at a discount price based on cheap access to Chinese parts.
Now that the Trump Tariffs have raised the cost of those TV components, Element can no longer afford to sell TVs at Walmart’s “China price.”
Unless Walmart is flexible with its contract, Element TV will close its assembly plant in early October, and all those jobs Walmart brags about in this video will be unplugged:
https://news.walmart.com/videos/youtube/walmart-and-element-electronics-bring-jobs-to-winnsboro-south-carolina-bkh3qnfulrq
The Element TV company assembly plant in Winnsboro, S.C,, is scheduled to lay off 124 (94%) of its workers by October because of ???the new tariffs that were recently and unexpectedly imposed on many goods imported from China, including the key television components used in our assembly operations.???
