Similar to the COVID-19 pandemic and the stresses it brought to the powersports industry in 2020, 2025 has delivered its own unique challenges—this time from U.S. government tariff policies. These policy changes have impacted multiple countries, industries, and businesses, as well as every person who buys or sells goods in the United States.
In this article, we break down how the new tariffs directly affect D.I.D brand products in the U.S. market, and what we’ve done to protect our partners and customers.
For many years, D.I.D products, which are completely manufactured in and imported from Japan, received exemptions that prevented tariffs on our imported products. Effective on March 12, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed proclamations that closed existing loopholes and exemptions for Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which restored a true 25% tariff on steel imports and elevated the aluminum import tariff also to 25%. This directly affected imported D.I.D chains, connecting links, and chain tools, which was confirmed under the Annex 1 list of HTS codes. The HTS code for our DirtStar aluminum rims was not included on the original Annex 1 list, therefore did not receive a tariff at this time. We deeply dove into the details of Section 232 to better understand its effects on D.I.D and no price increases were announced.
March 12 – April 4, 2025
· Chains / Links / Chain Tool: 25% tariff
o No Price Increase
· DirtStar Rims / Ace Wheels: No impact
o No Price Increase
Part of the “Liberation Day” tariff package unveiled by President under Executive Order 14257, a baseline 10% reciprocal tariff was instated on April 5, 2025. This 10% baseline tariff effected all products imported into the U.S., which included our DirtStar aluminum rims. Luckily, this baseline was not to be in addition to the products effected by the Section 232 25% tariff, keeping our D.I.D chains limited at a 25% tariff. A few days later on April 9, country-specific tariffs were announced, but then paused by the administration, keeping tariffs at 25% for chains and 10% for rims. At this time, we still had not increased the price of our chains or rims to the market.
April 5 – June 3, 2025
· Chains / Links / Chain Tool: 25% tariff
o No Price Increase
· DirtStar Rims / Ace Wheels: 10%
o No Price Increase
With a single day’s notice, on June 3, 2025, it was announced that the 25% tariff was to be increased to 50% for all products listed on the Annex 1 HTS list, affecting our chains, connecting links, and chain tool. As this doubled tariff was unexpected and effective immediately, we unfortunately had to act quickly and move forward with a plan of action. Instead of passing the full 50% tariff on chains to the market, it was decided to absorb 20% of this cost and only issue a 30% price increase to the market. This one-time 30% price increase would be effective from July 1 shipments to our distributing partners and online store.
So, from March 12 to June 30, 2025, D.I.D had absorbed all 25% and 50% tariff costs and had not implemented price increases to the market to protect our distributing partners and customers, avoid price shock to the market, and in turn hoped of keeping our market share.
June 4 – June 30, 2025
· Chains / Links / Chain Tool: 50% tariff
o No Price Increase
· DirtStar Rims / Ace Wheels: 10% tariff
o No Price Increase
More tariff news came on July 22 when a trade deal between the U.S. and Japan had been announced. As part of this agreement, the baseline tariff increased from 10 – 15%, effecting our DirtStar rims and Ace Wheel lines. Eventhough the aluminum D.I.D products had been hit with 10% and 15% tariffs for months, we have decided to not increase the prices of our DirtStar rims of Ace Wheels, completely absorbing these costs. After the dust had settled, this trade agreement did not affect steel products listed under Section 232, keeping our steel chain products hit with a 50% tariff and our pricing to the market remained at 30% up.
The Annex I list was updated with new HTS codes and the Annex II list was released and effective from August 7, 2025. Fortunately, this did not affect or change any D.I.D products.
July 1 – Current
· Chains / Links / Chain Tool: 50% tariff
o 30% Price Increase
· DirtStar Rims / Ace Wheels: 15% tariff (from July 22)
o No Price Increase
In summary, D.I.D chains were hit with and completely absorbed a 25% tariff on its imports to the U.S. from March 12 – June 3. From June 4 – June 30, D.I.D chains were tariffed at 50%, which was also absorbed by D.I.D. Not until July 1 shipments were chain prices increased by 30%, as D.I.D absorbed 20% of these tariff costs. DirtStar rims and the D.I.D Ace Wheels were hit with a 10% tariff from April 5 – July 21, which was also absorbed by D.I.D. With the reciprocal tariff increasing to 15% on July 22, D.I.D will continue to absorb the tariff costs on the DirtStar rim and D.I.D Ace Wheel lines until further notice as to protect our loyal customers in the market! We will continue to work tirelessly to provide the market with the best products, pricing, and customer service possible!
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