For baby strollers, there’s no way around China tariffs

Rayne Heath, a tech worker in Columbus, Ohio, who is six months pregnant with her first child, planned to wait until after her baby shower to buy a stroller. She was eyeing a Nuna model, with a height-adjustable handle and a car seat. The price: $1,200.

Heath snagged it just before the price rose by almost $200.

“It’s a time of a lot of uncertainty, which is definitely scary as a new parent," she said.

President Trump’s 145% tariffs on China are raising prices for a range of consumer products. The administration is thinking about cutting those duties to roughly 50% to 65%. That would nonetheless maintain a significant penalty on importers of Chinese goods.

Few products are being hit as hard as baby gear and toys.

Despite nearly a decade of trade tension with Beijing, American companies have struggled to find suppliers outside China that can produce efficiently while complying with the strict baby product safety standards that the U.S. government requires. Today, around 95% of imported strollers come from China, along with three-quarters of toys and infant furniture such as cribs.

That is in contrast with such products as shoes and clothing, which are less regulated and have largely shifted to countries including Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Enelio Ortega, chief executive officer of Bambi Baby, a New Jersey-based retail chain, said baby brands are hiking the minimum price stores can offer for their strollers by around 30% over the coming weeks. If the China tariffs remain at the current levels, he expects prices for many products to rise by at least half compared with before the tariffs.

For fancier stroller brands, with all-wheel suspension for a smooth ride and one-hand folding, that could mean a price increase of $400 or more.

“Baby gear as a whole has shifted to China for 15 years or longer, from low-end to high-end," Ortega said. “The infrastructure unfortunately cannot be picked up and moved that easily."

Bob Monahan, CEO of Uppababy, started the Massachusetts-based stroller company about two decades ago with his wife, Lauren Monahan, when they were having children but couldn’t find an easy-to-use stroller with an elegant design.

Today, Uppababy strollers, which retailed for up to $900 before Trump imposed new tariffs, are popular in parenting circles in places including Manhattan and are prized for features including reclining seats and large storage baskets.

The problem is they are made in China.

Uppababy said this month it would raise prices for most products. The price of its Vista V3 stroller will rise to $1,200 from $900.

The company is delaying product introductions after years of development because it can’t afford to import them to the U.S. Executives at the company have told Chinese suppliers to stop shipping their products so Uppababy doesn’t have to pay the tariffs, a move that could lead to product shortages.

“There was no way to anticipate or plan for how quickly these tariffs have escalated, with China in particular," Monahan said. “It’s been incredibly difficult to watch products like smartphones and other electronics receive exemptions, while tariffs on juvenile products could put a death sentence on businesses like ours."

Trump has blasted China’s manufacturing dominance and accused it of stealing American jobs. But baby-product companies said they have had many reasons for sticking with China.

Chinese manufacturers have decades of experience meeting strict U.S. safety standards. Third-party laboratories that inspect baby gear and certify children’s products for sale in the U.S. are clustered in China’s production hubs. Countries such as Cambodia or India aren’t as equipped to provide such inspections.

A month ago, Michael Wieder, president of Lalo, was on top of the world. His New York City-area company had just launched at Target, a major boost for a six-year-old business known for its minimalist high chairs and play kitchens.

Now, with around 85% of his products made in China, Wieder is thinking about shifting some production out of the Asian country but is uncertain because of frequent changes to tariff rates. Products such as bibs would be simple to move, he said; more-complex ones would be harder.

For now, Wieder is canceling a Memorial Day sale to avoid importing products he would have to pay duties on. With several months of stock, he hopes to avoid raising prices while deciding what to do.

“But at some point, we’re going to be faced with making hard decisions," he said.

Baby-product companies said it would take years to restore a large-scale manufacturing ecosystem in the U.S. for products such as strollers.

“Those trusted partnerships, which have been established for decades in China, don’t exist here in the U.S.," said Lisa Trofe, executive director of the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, an industry group seeking tariff exemptions on baby products. The organization said more than 90% of children’s and baby-gear products are manufactured in China.

Child-care products on sale at a wholesale market in eastern China.

Every year, buyers for international baby-product brands converge on northeastern China’s Pingxiang County, a onetime bicycle-producing region that has emerged as a mecca for stroller making. In 2023, the county’s 4,800 factories churned out 145 million strollers, children’s bicycles and electric cars, according to the Chinese government.

Such hubs rely on well-developed supply chains. Manufacturers in Hanchuan, a rival stroller hub in central China’s Hubei province, can turn to suppliers for such parts as wide wheels for snowy Russia or specialized brakes that Australian safety standards require.

The toy maker Hasbro, which sells Transformers and Power Rangers action figures, produces around half its products for the U.S. in China.

Hasbro Chief Operating Officer Gina Goetter said on an earnings call Thursday that the company was accelerating efforts to shift U.S. production from China, but that China would remain a manufacturing hub because of specialized capabilities developed over decades.

Molson Hart, a toy entrepreneur in Austin, Texas, is racing to shift production from China to southeastern Asian markets including Vietnam. Hart said he might kill products that would be difficult to move.

“I’m working 12, 13 hours a day, and I can’t fix it all," he said.

Write to Jon Emont at jonathan.emont@wsj.com