President Donald Trump's sweeping new tariffs could raise the price of Bibles.
China, one of the countries hit with higher tariffs by the Trump administration this week, is the world's biggest Bible printer, printing the overwhelming majority of Bibles that are distributed in the United States, according to Christianity Today.
Why It Matters
Trump announced new tariffs on almost all U.S. trading partners on Wednesday, including a 34 percent tax on imports from China.
The president has said the tariffs will boost domestic manufacturing and bring wealth to the U.S. However, the announcement of the new tariffs triggered a plunge in world financial markets and fears of a recession. Tariffs are paid by the U.S.-based companies that buy the goods to sell to Americans and economists say they're likely to pass the cost on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
What To Know
Mark Schoenwald, president and chief executive of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, which bills itself as the country's largest commercial Bible and Christian book publisher, told The Wall Street Journal that it was "all hands on deck" on Wednesday as it worked to figure out what the tariffs could mean for them.
Newsweek has contacted HarperCollins Christian Publishing for comment via email.
Printing Bibles is trickier than other types of books since they are printed on thin paper that requires special expertise to print.
Amity Printing Company, the only legal printer of Bibles in China, has printed more than 100 million copies of the Bibles in cooperation with the United Bible societies since 1987, according to Christianity Today.
China is also where copies of Trump's "God Bless the USA" Bibles were printed. The Associated Press reported last year that a printing company in China's eastern city of Hangzhou shipped almost 120,000 of the Bibles to the U.S. last year.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday about the tariffs: "I think it's going very well. It was an operation...like when a patient gets operated on and it's a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is."
He added: "The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom, and the rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal."
Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said on Wednesday: "Whenever you trade with somebody—when an individual buys somebody else's product—it's mutually beneficial, or you wouldn't buy it. The consumer wins when the price is the lowest price. Tariffs raise prices, and they're a bad idea for the economy."
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, previously told Newsweek: "The bulk of tariffs are borne by American consumers in the form of higher prices. A combination of the tariffs and the retaliation will weigh heavily on the economy and in many scenarios may push us into a recession.
What Happens Next?
The impact of the tariffs on the price of Bibles remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, China's finance ministry said it would impose a 34 percent tariff on all U.S. goods starting from midnight on April 10.
The ministry said in a release that China "urges the US to immediately lift unilateral tariffs and resolve trade differences through consultation on an equal, respectful and mutually beneficial basis."
