Possible supply chain issues may arise from tariffs

What will happen to the supply chain with the tariffs the Trump Administration has put in place against China and eventually Canada and Mexico? What will it mean for consumers? Will we see shortages? Analysts say the China tariffs would mostly affect eCommerce sites like Amazon, Shein, Shopify and Temu.

Dale Rogers, Professor at ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business, joined us on “Arizona Horizon” to help answer these questions.

President Trump has imposed a 25% tax on steel and aluminum imports from other countries and a 10% tax on any imports from China. These taxes are also known as tariffs, they are taxes imposed by a country’s government on imports and exports from other countries.

“A trade war never works. And if you look around the world at economies that are basically closed, that have tariffs, Brazil, Venezuela, there’s a bunch of them. We don’t want to trade places with them,” Rogers said.

Supply chain managers are used to seeing disruptions on a daily basis, “but these tariffs are unnecessary disruptions,” said Rogers. These tariffs are predicted to slow down imports from other countries, for example, China and their large companies such as Temu or Shein. Rogers said some people within the U.S. are interested in stopping low-cost items which could lead to slower shipping times.

“This is going to be disastrous for air cargo… It cost ten times as much to ship it on an airplane. Well, what are you shipping on an airplane? Small packages, avoiding tariffs,” Rogers said.

He also said that costs for consumers on imported products will rise however the exact price increase is unpredictable as of right now.