Singapore Minister Chan

Second and Third-Order Tariff Impacts: Shutting the Gate Damages Us All

The implications, as the Singaporean trade minister noted, can be hard to calculate.  For instance, American importing companies will need to increase the amount of the continuous bond they hold with US Customs.  In some cases, bond levels may be 20-100 times higher than prior to Trump’s tariff wars began. Shipping volumes have fallen off dramatically.  This has left firms paying more for transportation as well. So it is not just 25% tariff rate increases that affect firms.  The second- and third-order implications are just starting to appear. In the short run, exporting firms have several options to limit risk and exposure to higher tariffs.  They can do nothing and bear higher costs, hoping to ride out a short conflict.  They can work with their importing partners to effectively “share” the costs of higher tariffs. Firms should be reexamining their options to ensure that they understand their current supply chains, tariff classifications and possible sourcing alternatives.  It may be prudent to tweak existing processes to move products into new tariff classifications by, for example, adding or subtracting manufacturing steps in the supply chain from one location to another.