Companies like to plan…maybe we can’t do effective five-year plans anymore, at least without the need to frequently revise them. But companies would surely like to operate from 30-, 60-, or even 90-day plans at a minimum. Even that has become somewhat dicey of late.

Why? Two words: Tariff uncertainty. A wide range of tariffs have been assessed by the current administration on many different countries. Quite often, before they even take effect, percentages are raised or lowered, or there is talk of eliminating them completely. Added to that, the administration removed the de minimis duty-free treatment of low-value imports from China. What that had enabled was allowing many online and other purveyors to ship smaller packages directly to the end consumer. Now they can’t do that anymore. So far, according to reports, tariffs on the apparel sector have results in a 35% in apparel prices, with prices expected to increase even more over time. All of this has made sourcing from China economically unviable for many, and Vietnam, Bangladesh, and others are benefiting.

One definite impact of tariffs, as companies around the globe struggle to deal with them, is a sharp decline of U.S. imports from some countries. According to a recent article from GlobalData, the most affected country is China. While overall import volumes dipped slightly in July, there was a 1.6% decrease as compared to August 2024. Th report notes, “China, the leading source of U.S. imports, saw a decrease to 869,523 [20-foot equivalent units] TEUs in August, down by 5.8% from July and reflecting a substantial 10.8% drop compared to August of the previous year.” And apparel imports from China sank in July.