Joann Fabric Starts Tariff Petition

Joann Fabric (Hudson, Ohio) has created an online petition to convince members of Congress and the White House to pass exemptions from tariffs on hundreds of its China-imported products.

The company is urging its customers to electronically sign the petition, since they stand to ultimately pay higher prices on the products (such as fabrics, fleece and yarn) that they purchase from the retailer to compensate for the 25-percent higher taxation. So far 20,000 people have signed the Made in America Tax petition, reports the Associated Press and the Chicago Sun-Times.

The retailer says that its consumers that stand to take the biggest hit from the higher taxes are small business owners, which it says make up about 20 percent of its business. Roughly two-thirds of Joann’s goods are sourced from China. The company’s executives have been lobbying leaders in Congress against the tariffs that apply to their company’s goods this past week.