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The Journal.

How One Company Is Navigating a New Era of Tariff Uncertainty

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Business News, News, Daily News

4.25.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Newell Brands, the Atlanta-based maker of dozens of household brands including Rubbermaid, Coleman and Yankee Candle, paid more than $170 million in tariffs last year. Newell’s CEO Chris Peterson tells Jessica Mendoza that those tariffs hurt business and the company is considering requesting a refund. He also talks about plans to bring more manufacturing to America. One of its brands, Sharpie, is now almost completely made in the United States. But making that happen wasn’t easy.  Further Listening:  Trump's Tariffs Are Illegal. He's Got a Plan B. How Tariffs Could End Italian Pasta in the U.S. How to Make a $12.98 T-Shirt... in the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Newell brands. It isn't a household name, but a lot of its brands, like crockpot,

0:12.4

rubber made, Yankee candle, and papermate. A lot of Newell's products are manufactured overseas,

0:19.9

and many of them were hit with tariffs.

0:22.9

Ultimately, Newell paid more than $170 million in tariffs last year.

0:28.4

This week, I spoke with Newell's CEO, Chris Peterson.

0:32.0

And if you're listening to this on Spotify, you can watch the interview, too.

0:36.7

I do want to address the big news from last week, which is that the Supreme Court ruled that many of the president's global tariffs are illegal.

0:44.3

And then he announced a new set of 15 percent tariffs across the board. How are you processing all of this?

0:51.3

You know, it's interesting. I was at a big investor conference on Friday, and I went on the

0:57.1

stage about an hour after the Supreme Court ruling came out, so it was good timing. That must have been

1:01.7

fun. And I said at the time that effectively, we're going to have to wait and see. It's unclear exactly

1:10.7

how all of this is going to play out.

1:12.9

The substantial majority of that money that we paid was under the AEPA tariffs,

1:17.7

which are the ones that the Supreme Court has ruled not valid.

1:23.2

And so there's sort of a couple of questions.

1:25.7

Number one is, are we entitled to a refund or not?

1:28.3

And that, I think, is going to go to a lower court to figure out.

1:32.3

But the more important question to your point is, what is the go forward?

1:36.7

As the company tries to find its footing in a shaky tariff landscape, it's also doing

1:41.0

something else, making more in the U.S.

1:47.0

One brand in particular, Sharpie.

1:53.2

Sharpie has recently gone from being made overseas into an almost completely American-made product.

...

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