Amazon CEO Andy Jassy: Consumers Likely to Pay Cost of Tariffs

Amazon’s third-party sellers are likely to try to pass the cost of tariffs on to consumers, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Thursday (April 10).

Interviewed on CNBC, which shared the video on its website, Jassy said sellers may not have the margin to absorb the tariffs themselves.

“So, I think they’ll try and pass the cost on,” Jassy said.

Asked about reports that Amazon has cut back on its purchases from China, Jassy said the company is doing everything it can to keep prices as low as possible for its customers.

“We’ve done some strategic forward inventory buys, to get as many items as makes sense for customers at lower prices,” Jassy said. “There are some cases where we have deals that were negotiated that weren’t done, where we’ll renegotiate terms to make it easier for customers to have lower prices. So, we’re going to do everything we can to keep prices as low as possible.”

Because the tariffs are still new and are in flux, Amazon hasn’t seen any meaningful change in consumer behavior, Jassy said. Customers have not stopped buying, and in some cases may be buying ahead to avoid tariffs, but it’s hard to tell yet.

In its AWS cloud computing business, the company purchases parts from all over the world, and that business “very significantly” diversified its supply chain, starting five years ago, Jassy said.

“We have components from everywhere, it’s not just one country, but we have such high demand right now for AWS and AI, growth is so significant that we don’t see any attenuation in demand and we’re going to keep building,” Jassy said.

It was reported Wednesday (April 9) that Amazon cancelled orders from multiple vendors in China and other Asian countries after President Donald Trump’s April 2 announcement that the United States planned to levy tariffs on goods from more than 180 countries.

It was also reported Wednesday that China is home to roughly half of Amazon merchants and that because of the new tariffs, these sellers are faced with a choice between hiking their prices or leaving the platform.

Among five sellers interviewed by Reuters, three said they would look at hiking prices for their exports to the U.S., while two planned to exit the market.