US, China Agree To Slash Tariffs In Trade War De-escalation

Jonathan Silva (footballer)owner

The timing couldn’t have been any worse with regard to placing orders, so turning on a dime to pick back up with customers and our factories will put us severely behind schedule,

said WS Game Company owner Jonathan Silva, whose Massachusetts business creates deluxe versions of Monopoly, Scrabble and other Hasbro board games

It’s very hard to plan because if you want to go back to production in a couple of months, then you’re worried about what will the tariff rate be when it hits the U.S. ports after that 90-day period,

Poses said

I appreciate any progress being made on the tariff front, but unfortunately, we’re still far from a real solution — especially for small businesses like mine,

Umlauf said

Jeremy Ricebritish skeleton racer

Our vendors are still kind of running around juggling, not knowing what they’re gonna do,

Rice said

There needs to be a plan in place that lasts a year or two so people can plan against it,

he said

The continued uncertainty is a difficult way to run a business!"

Muskat said

Sadly, the residual 30% tariff (stacked on top of the existing Section 301 and MFN tariffs) will still make for an expensive back-to-school and holiday season for most Americans,

said Lamar

I have clients with thousands of containers pre-loaded in China that is ready to come in,

said Paul Brashier, vice president of global supply chain at ITS Logistics

Ocean freight could be up to 20% in the short term from China to the U.S. West Coast,

said Sand

We've all gone back to our financial models of what happened during Covid, what happened during the Panama Canal water restrictions, what happened when the Red Sea changes happened, and other scenarios prior to that to see what happened with the reduction in trade and then the recovery,

said Edwards

Shippers will take the 90-day window of opportunity to ship as many goods as possible into the U.S. and this will put upward pressure on freight rates,

Sand said

What's needed now is a long-term deal — not just with China but with all our trading partners — so we can predictably make long-term trade, investment, and sourcing decisions,

Lamar said

Now we will release that inventory into our distribution center, and will have absorbed all the costs involved for no good reason!"

Muskat said

That's unacceptable. We've outlined clear, reasonable exemptions in our letter to the administration, and we urge them to take action to ease the burden on Americans further. Our industry needs relief — and so do the families we serve,

said Priest

A couple of our biggest members over the weekend said the stockpiling they all did was going to tide them over until Memorial Day,

said Byer

This will kick off peak season and run hard until the third quarter,

said Brashier

Our costs will go up closer to 40%,

said Muskat

Tariffs at the 20% level didn't stop shippers from frontloading in March and April,

said Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos

The unpredictable is a killer for businesses. How do you quote 90 days out? How do you forecast a cash flow statement? How do you make long-term capital decisions? If the intent of this tariff policy is to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., how does a company deal with the unpredictability of the future?"

Kaminstein said, and big questions remain unanswered for business owners

For importers overall, the 30% level may still make their product and overall profitability a challenge,

said Alan Baer, CEO of logistics company OL USA