Trade War

The United States and China appear to have found at least some common ground on a few different issues, during this week’s meeting between President Donald Trump and President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, at the APEC meeting in South Korea.

Any signs of progress being made on the trade front between the United States and its second-largest trade partner, Canada, appear to be squelched, based on a social media post issued by President Trump last night.

The impetus for this planned action, Trump said, was due to China taking what he described as an extraordinarily aggressive position on trade, in the form of imposing large scale export controls on nearly every product made in China and some not made in China, including rare earth minerals.

White House imposes steep tariffs on trucks, furniture, and pharmaceuticals as legal challenge to trade powers looms

Wells Fargo’s 2025 Supply Chain Report reveals a sector adapting to tariffs, shifting inventory strategies, and transportation complexity.

For July, the most recent month for which data is available, U.S. imports came in at 2.36 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units), with the report’s authors saying that this tally excludes numbers for New York/New Jersey, Port Everglades, and Miami, marking a 20.1% gain over July, a period when importers were bringing in merchandise in advance of tariffs going into effect on August 1, while posting a 1.8% annual gain. This tally would mark the second highest-volume month on record, trailing...

It is hard to find a period in time in which supply chains have seen so much volatility and uncertainty, in various ways as over the last five years. That is nothing new, to be sure, but, at the same time, it does speak to the significance of the industry (whether you may be a shipper, carrier, 3PL, academic, analyst, lobbyist, or anything else along those lines).

Late last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling, by a 7-4 margin, in which it stated the majority of the IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) tariffs rolled out by the White House are illegal. Tariffs will remain temporarily in place until October 14, which will give the White House time to appeal its case to the Supreme Court.

Following a 90-day pause rolled out in May, which was set to expire today, the White House said yesterday, in an Executive Order, that tariffs on United States-bound imports from China will remain at current levels for another 90 days, through November 10.

A common refrain among industry stakeholders has been that they know tariffs are coming, or have already arrived, but they badly want, and need, some clarity and stability on tariff rates in order to effectively take action, as it relates to a whole host of things, including: operations; sourcing and procurement; inventory management; capital expenditures; and hiring and staffing, among many others.

The overall outlook remains fluid, in terms of the pace and also significance of trade deals being made up to the August 1 deadline. John Lash, group VP of product strategy for connected supply chain platform services provider e2open, provided LM with his analysis of what shippers may be in store for when the new tariffs formally take effect.

the weekend he said that matching 30% tariffs will be placed on the imports from the European Union and Mexico to the U.S. on the same date—separate from sectoral tariffs.

When this deal was initially announced in May, the U.S. Department of Commerce labeled it a “historic trade deal-providing unprecedented access to the U.K. markets while bolstering U.S. national security.”

This ruling allows the tariffs to remain intact amid the ongoing appeals process.

Paced by the current reduction in tariffs on United States-bound goods from China, which is set to expire in mid-August, the new edition of the Global Port Tracker report, which was issued today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and maritime consultancy Hackett Associates, said U.S.-bound imports are expected to “see a surge through this summer.”