Natural stones are one of the most important and sophisticated elements used in beautifying the home, office or school whether in forms of tiles, walls or countertops.
Natural stones incorporate different kinds of stones which are applicable for both inside purposes and outside purposes which may include; vanity tops, countertops, siding, flooring, fire pits, walkways, and many more.
Beyond reasonable doubt, the relevance of natural stones is quite significant such that any trade control mechanism placed on it would automatically increase the cost of the stones to increasingly rise.
Thus, trade wars simply entail a socio-economic situation, whereby a country imposes a tariff scheme on an imported product and another producing country retaliates with the same trade protection mechanism just to foster their domestication.
Although this mechanism has its advantages on the short run in such a way that it fosters local production and sales; but in the long run, it is detrimental to the global relationship with other countries of the world, deters economic growth of the countries involved and at the same time may result into inflation.
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The 2020 presidential election is fast approaching, bulk of the American spotlight has been devising means to predict how the trade war between the United States and American nations will positively or negatively impact varying business; beyond reasonable doubt, the trade war is adversely affecting the prices of agricultural commodities already and it is gradually creeping towards home beautifying utilities.
The fast increasing trade wars based on the irregular imposition of tariffs have finally reached the natural stone industry and may result in a corresponding increase in its sale prices.
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How US-China trade war is affecting the prices of Natural stones
The Trump administration announced a series of tariff imposition on more than $200 million of goods imported from China in 2019.
The American government has implemented this tariff mechanism over a wide range of goods including every type of dimensional natural stone that is being imported and also a wide range of other types of hard surfaces such as ceramic tiles.
Unfortunately, granite slabs have been accrued with one of the largest tariffs.
One of the economic questions is considering how much increase will apply to the prices of countertop stones within the year.
An important consideration is the Granite (used for most countertops construction); it is quite economically advisable to purchase now because prices are expected to rise anytime soon.
Examine this reference; the granite costs currently start at $25 per square foot installed, and can as well go beyond a $100 for rare and exotic materials.
Speculations have projected that at the beginning of 2020, there are possibilities that the prices of per square foot granite would rise to $200 per square foot by early 2020.
It should be noted that there are lots of factors that make up the overall prices of your countertop which include edging, cut-outs, backsplash, finish, and stone color.
By limiting extra details on your countertops, there are chances of reducing your overall cost of purchase and installation at the end of the day.
Thus, the on-going trade war is most likely to affect the prices of granite countertop installation services to also skyrocket in response to the increase in the cost of granite and other natural stones.
These imposed tariffs are not expected to go anytime soon but instead, if you are planning to renovate your workplace or home, it is quite imperative to consider the purchase of the building materials now!
This economic move will save you hundreds of dollars before the end of the year as the prices of natural stones continue to rise.
Thus, in as much the trade war between China and the US persists, expect all products that involve china products made to hit retail mark up till early 2020.
Natural stones cost projections
As of 2019, the cost of a slab of natural stones for countertops runs between $25 to $1200 per square depending on the design in the picture.
Marble costs about $100 per square foot which only means that the cost of installing a kitchen countertop would cost between $1500 and $3000.
Cheaper natural stone countertops for a standardized kitchen would cost on average, around $1000 to install.
Several projections have posited that the prices that would be placed on granite at the beginning of 2020 would possibly rise to $200 per square foot.
Although the exact price and timing depend on the trade negotiations between the US and China, in essence, how trade representatives handle the current situation.
So far, the negotiations have been nothing but tensed and overly worse since a consensus is yet to be attained.
Another thing is that the American presidential election would most likely not improve the trade negotiations between both countries.