By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump said on Friday his administration will conduct a “major” tariff investigation on furniture entering the United States, a step toward imposing higher duties.
“Furniture coming from other Countries into the United States will be Tariffed at a Rate yet to be determined,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Furniture retailer RH — previously known as Restoration Hardware — shares fell 7.5% in after-hours trading on Trump’s announcement.
Trump said the investigation will be completed within the next 50 days but other national security probes have taken significantly longer than that.
The Section 232 probe could serve as the legal basis for tariffs if a federal appeals court strikes down “reciprocal” tariffs that Trump imposed on a broad range of U.S. trading partners in April, as well as tariffs imposed in February against China, Canada and Mexico.
“This will bring the Furniture Business back to North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, and States all across the Union,” Trump said.
Furniture and wood products manufacturing — which employed 1.2 million people in 1979 — has fallen from 681,000 in 2000 to 340,000 today, according to government statistics.
The United States imported about $25.5 billion in furniture in 2024, up 7% over 2023, with about 60% those imports coming from Vietnam and China, according to Furniture Today, a trade publication.
Furniture would be the latest imported products targeted for a national security investigation by the Trump administration. On Thursday, it announced a national security probe into imported wind turbines and has previously targeted copper and other metals.
The department has opened numerous probes into the national security ramifications of imports of airplanes, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, heavy trucks, timber and lumber, critical minerals and drones.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Bhargav Acharya; editing by Ryan Patrick Jones, Caitlin Webber and Diane Craft)
