Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says consumers are starting to see the impact of tariffs less than a year after President Donald Trump implemented sweeping fees on a range of imported goods. During an interview with CNBC, Jassy says the inventory Amazon and third-party sellers prebought in early 2025 to keep prices low has “run out,” which means “you start to see some of the tariffs creep into some of the prices.”
The admission comes just one day after a study from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy found that foreign exporters absorb just 4 percent of the cost of tariffs, while 96 percent is passed on to American consumers. “Some sellers are deciding that they’re passing on those higher costs to consumers in the form of higher prices,” Jassy tells CNBC. “Some are deciding that they’ll absorb it to drive demand.”
On top of a wave of tariffs, Trump issued an executive order to close the “de minimis” loophole that allowed low-cost goods to enter the US duty-free. The block went into effect last August, and according to Jassy, there isn’t much else Amazon and third-party sellers can do to stave off additional price increases.
“If people’s costs go up by 10 percent, there aren’t a lot of places to absorb it,” Jassy says. “So we’re going to do everything we can to work with our selling partners to make prices as low as possible for consumers — but you don’t have endless options.”
