St. Paul, Minnesota-based Ecolab is adding a 5% surcharge to all of their products starting May 1 according to a new report from Reuters.
The water solutions company said all products and services in the U.S. would see the 5% charge to mitigate rising raw material costs due to recent changes in international trade policies.
"Global tariffs greater than 10% and 145% tariff placed on China are having broader impacts on the cost of some raw materials, packaging, and equipment," CEO Christophe Beck said via Reuters. "We cannot fully mitigate these increases, necessitating adjustments in our pricing."
The St. Paul Fortune 500 company is a leader in cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection prevention products and services. The company was formed in Minnesota in 1923 specializing in cleaning products.
Ecolab does significant business in China and has 17 listed locations there, including a China Holding Company / Regional Headquarters in Shanghai, P.R. China.
Ecolab joins a number of other U.S. companies that have added a "tariff surcharge."
Long-threatened tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump have plunged the country into trade wars abroad — all while on-again, off-again new levies continue to escalate uncertainty.
Trump is no stranger to tariffs. He launched a trade war during his first term, taking particular aim at China by putting taxes on most of its goods. Beijing responded with its own retaliatory tariffs on a range of U.S. products. Meanwhile, Trump also used the threat of more tariffs to force Canada and Mexico to renegotiate a North American trade pact, called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, in 2020.
When President Joe Biden took office, he preserved most of the tariffs Trump previously enacted against China, in addition to imposing some new restrictions — but his administration claimed to take a more targeted approach.
Fast-forward to today, and economists stress there could be greater consequences on businesses and economies worldwide under Trump's more sweeping tariffs this time around — and that higher prices will likely leave consumers footing the bill. There's also been a sense of whiplash from Trump's back-and-forth tariff threats and responding retaliation seen over the last few months.