For the second time in less than two months, the CEO of a publicly traded company admitted that tariff cost burdens will not be passed down fully, if at all, to consumers. With one CEO saying tariffs were too low.

Ethan Allen CEO Farooq Kathwari told Bloomberg on Sept. 8 that domestic production protects them from the bulk of the current “Liberation Day” tariffs. And that if the Section 232 tariffs go through on furniture, they will share the cost burden with their offshore manufacturing partners rather than pass it all down to consumers.

“We will share the cost with our partners and take on some price increases. It depends on the product and the import duties. Our partners are sharing the cost now, and we will operate with lower margins, too,” Kathwari said about present tariff rates, and potential new ones.

About 75% of Ethan Allen’s furniture is made in North America. Of that, roughly half is made in the U.S., with the rest made in Mexico and Honduras. Kathwari said that when furniture companies were leaving the U.S. completely about 30 years ago, they decided to stick it out, adding that they had “good talent and good technology” and that “you have to treat good talent well.” He said automation was replacing workers or making up for worker shortages, but also added that technology made manufacturing affordable and allowed them to keep factories open.

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