Last month’s online poll asked: What is your position on the recent tariffs issue?

Forty-four percent of respondents are against tariffs on plastics, aluminum, etc. — likely many in flexible packaging or foils/metal. Not far off, 31 percent are for tariffs on those materials.

While company petitions are allowed in certain circumstances, just 10 percent stated the company filed one. And, 15 percent ticked the box stating “it doesn’t affect my business.”

It seems that flexible packaging is taking the biggest hit, with foils/metals coming up on its heels.

What will the tariffs mean to packaging for the future? We’re sure to see in the coming months. For now, importing materials from some other countries will cost much, much more — and affect many if not all of the packaging sectors.

Taxes imposed on Chinese imports are said to be at 10 percent currently but will jump to 25 percent in January 2019. Of course, China reacted by imposing the same 25 percent tariffs on American goods.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released in September 2018 a list of approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports that will be subject to additional tariffs. We will provide more information as it comes.