Introduction

The famous management consultant and author Peter Drucker once said, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence - it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”

So far, 2025 has been a relatively turbulent year for freight forwarders and logistics service providers. The tariff war, which began in January after the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, has brought added risk, uncertainty, and costs to global trade operations. What makes it especially challenging is the ongoing changes, with tariffs increased, decreased, added, or eliminated, almost on a daily basis.

For example, on April 2, 2025, or “Liberation Day” as President Trump called it, the administration announced “10% tariffs on all imports into the United States, and even higher tariffs on goods from about 60 countries or trading blocs that have a high trade deficit with the US,” as reported at the time by Bryan Mena at CNN. “That includes China and the European Union, which will be levied new duties of 34% and 20%, respectively.”

These tariffs were ultimately paused for 90 days until July 9, then paused again until August 1.

In the meantime, “Trump issued letters to more than two dozen world leaders setting new import tax rates that their countries’ exports to the U.S. would face beginning in August,” as reported by Kevin Breuninger at CNBC. “Most of those new tariff rates were close to the April 2 levels that Trump had initially arrived at by using a formula that economists had criticized. But some were much higher. Brazil, for instance, went from facing a 10% tariff to bracing for a 50% duty.”

This was followed by the U.S. and several countries, including the UK, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the European Union, establishing bilateral tariff agreements before the August 1 deadline. As of this writing, negotiations continue between the U.S. and China (and with Mexico, Canada, Australia, India, and other important trading partners too).