Amazon CEO says online sellers could pass US tariff costs to customers

US President Donald Trump has boosted tariffs on China, where Amazon sources much of its inventory

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Packages are transported on a conveyor belt at an Amazon warehouse in Melville, New York. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:34am, 11 Apr 2025Updated: 3:51pm, 11 Apr 2025

Amazon.com chief executive officer Andy Jassy said the e-commerce company would try to keep prices low but said online sellers could pass some tariff costs on to customers.

“We look at all the things that could impact consumers and customers,” he said Thursday in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC. “It’s hard to know what’s really going to happen. There’s a lot of flux right now.”

Jassy said he had not seen any change in consumer behaviour since US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on multiple countries last week. Trump paused many of them on Wednesday but boosted tariffs on China, where Amazon sources much of its inventory.

Asked if he was talking to the Trump administration about tariffs, he said Amazon had shared its concerns and that US officials were aware of them.

Jassy also released his annual letter to shareholders, in which he said Amazon had to operate like the “world’s largest start-up” as it worked to meet demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cut bureaucracy in its ranks.

Amazon, like most of the largest technology companies, has bet heavily on AI, committing much of its US$100 billion in planned capital expenditures this year to AI-related projects.