Amazon among U.S. companies working to counter Trump's tariff plans

Big companies in the United States from Amazon.com Inc to Toyota Motor Corp and Alcoa Corp are working to counter the effect of the Trump administration's trade policies and to head off new tariffs.

Companies are attempting to avoid any confrontation with U.S. President Donald Trump but want to exert as much influence as they can to dissuade him from tearing up trade agreements or introducing tariffs on a wide swath of imports.

Amazon, the world's largest online retailer and cloud-computing company, which could be hurt by tariffs on items sold through its website and components for its data centres, is discussing industry-wide advertising campaigns and more extensive government lobbying, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Amazon declined to comment.

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In addition to the steel and aluminium tariffs already imposed, the Trump administration has threatened 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion (152.39 billion pounds) of Chinese goods which would affect thousands of imported products from furniture to network routers.

Seattle-based Amazon is concerned such tariffs would hit shoppers during the crucial holiday shopping season, the person familiar with the matter said.

Amazon has identified a wide range of items, some of them high-value, the tariffs would hit and is assessing the potential impact on its business, the person said.

High among its concerns is an increase in import costs for components used in data centres or other items that would make its cloud computing division less competitive, two people familiar with the matter said. Amazon Web Services is the company's most profitable unit.

Amazon is not alone in the technology industry with its worries. "It’s hard to think of many of our companies that don’t have some risk and exposure as a result of the tariff," said Dean Garfield, chief executive of the Information Technology Industry Council, which counts Amazon rivals Microsoft Corp , Alphabet Inc's Google and others as members.

Lobbying administration officials and members of Congress can be costly with no guarantee of victory, but some have succeeded.

Apple Inc won guarantees from the Trump administration that its lucrative iPhones would ship from China without being subject to tariffs, the New York Times reported last month.