The extensive “reciprocal” tariffs levied by President Donald Trump across dozens of countries are forcing businesses worldwide to tinker with how and when their shipments are headed to the U.S.
Just days after the president touted the far-reaching duties, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association’s (BGMEA) Chittagong office urged the Bangladesh Shipping Association to expedite U.S.-bound shipments currently delayed at Chattogram Port and inland container depots.
The concerns come as the April 9 deadline for the new country-specific tariffs goes into effect Wednesday, which would escalate to (at least) 37 percent for Bangladesh. Ten-percent import tariffs from all countries impacted went into effect Saturday.
Outside of the apparel supply chain, Apple is hustling up to get out in front of the tariffs, having already shipped five planes of iPhones and other goods from India to the U.S. in late March.
The tech titan plans to send more iPhones from India to the U.S. to offset the tariff costs as a short-term stopgap in hopes of getting an exemption from the tariffs, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Apple already obtained such an exemption during the first Trump administration.
Related Stories
Elsewhere, parties are looking to wait out any potential supply chain chaos by either delaying or pausing shipments altogether.
British automaker Jaguar Land Rover has halted shipments to the U.S. for one month, while Germany’s Audi is pausing indefinitely in response to another one of President Trump’s tariffs—the 25 percent duty imposed on all imported automobiles. U.K.-based bookseller Waterstones is postponing international orders to America temporarily while it assesses the 10-percent baseline tariff on the country.
Ryan Petersen, CEO and founder of digital freight forwarder Flexport, said in a Saturday post on X that a portion of his company’s customers are taking the wait-and-see approach.
Petersen said 28 percent of Flexport’s customers that were part of a series of calls said they’re pausing all ocean freight bookings from Asia until there’s more clarity on where tariffs will end up. He also said “quite a few” clients shifted to air freight during the week to load goods before the April 9 deadline.
On Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast Monday morning, Petersen noted that the ongoing country-specific negotiations have kept more businesses at bay.
“A cabinet member told me that Liberation Day is the beginning and not the end of the process, and that they will be negotiating deals,” Petersen said, citing the Trump administration’s claim that 50 countries have tried to renegotiate the upcoming tariffs. “If you think your duty rate might come back down, you kind of pause. Pausing is what I would do, too.”
According to Petersen, some of Flexport’s e-commerce partners are already raising prices 5 to 10 percent due to the tariffs.
Petersen expects more companies to declare force majeure or attempt to get out of existing contracts or relationships, opening a whole new potential legal can of worms.
“Let’s say you’re a vendor to a big-box retailer and you sign a contract to sell something at this price, and then there was no clause in there about tariff changes. You’re way underwater on contract, and you’ll have to choose—either go bankrupt or hurt your reputation,” Petersen said.
Flexport is now rethinking whether it should redeploy some of its China-based air freight operation in other areas like Taiwan or Vietnam.
“It’s possible that we stay in China and continue to do what we’re doing but I suspect there just won’t be enough volume,” Petersen said.
In both the podcast and his Saturday tweets, Petersen maintained one current positive for many U.S. businesses, in that “people are well stocked.”
That theme has pervaded for months as the U.S. has seen elevated inbound cargo volume into major ports since Trump was voted back in as commander-in-chief in November. In January, total 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) entering the ports increased 13.4 percent over the year prior, and 4.4 percent over December totals. February numbers are expected to see a 6.1 percent annual increase, and an even bigger 10.8 percent yearly bump in March.
This pull-forward was expected to keep cargo numbers elevated into the spring, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and trade consulting firm Hackett Associates.
But the strong start will likely lead to a softening in volume later in the year, especially for bulk commodities like furniture, appliances and air conditioning units.
“Given the substantial inventory already here and the uncertainty of tariffs, it’s possible we could see a 10 percent drop in volume in the second half of this year,” said Gene Seroka, executive director at the Port of Los Angeles, at a media briefing last month.