Tariffs, Tantrums, and Trade Chaos: What Supply Chain Pros Really Think
- 23 May 2025
- Manhattan Staff
- 2 minutes
Welcome to the wild world of tariffs, where even your customs broker is sweating and your transportation planner is pulling their hair out.
In a candid roundtable discussion hosted at Momentum, Manhattan’s annual customer conference, logistics professionals opened up about the chaos, confusion, and critical lessons they’ve learned navigating today’s unpredictable tariff environment.
Georgia Tech's Professor Alan Erera and Professor Alejandro Toriello facilitated the session, and it didn't take long for the truth bombs to start flying.
And if there was one shared feeling in the room? Exhaustion.
“The real problem isn’t the tariffs—it’s the whiplash. One day it’s 25%, the next it’s 10%, then it’s Vietnam’s turn. How do you plan around that?”
Spoiler: You don’t. Not perfectly. But the supply chain leaders in the room surfaced some clear, hard-earned takeaways:
What It All Boils Down To:
Tariffs may be painful, but overreacting—like reworking your entire network over a short-term policy shift—can backfire. Just ask anyone who ordered triple the inventory during COVID.
Companies that spread their supply base across multiple countries are faring better. China's dominance has been a wake-up call—friend-shoring and near-shoring are more than buzzwords now.
From knowing your HTS codes to understanding where your suppliers' suppliers operate, clarity is now mission-critical. Lack of it can lead to costly misclassifications, customs rejections, and shipment delays.
Even when companies do everything right, CBP's systems are often behind. Brokers shared stories of entries being rejected due to outdated validations or incorrect system logic. You're not imagining it—it really is that broken.
One customs broker delivered a stern reminder: “If your workaround feels too clever, it might be fraud.” And under new compliance regulations, brokers are now obligated to report clients who openly discuss illegal practices.
As tariff rates fluctuate, companies panic-order, pulling forward shipments or flooding ports to beat deadline dates. The result? A rollercoaster of rate hikes, port congestion, and capacity shortages.
The Big Question: What Are Tariffs Really For?
Perhaps the most telling moment came when the group grappled with the “why” behind tariffs. Is it about protecting American industry? Raising revenue? Punishing rivals?
Redirecting trade?
No one had a firm answer—because frankly, no one knows.
“Even the Trump and Biden administrations agree on one thing: the 301 tariffs are here to stay. Biden didn’t roll them back—he actually removed the exceptions.”
So while government leaders rapidly adjust their strategy, companies are left to deal with the reality of a moving target: shifting costs, volatile trade routes, and a deeply uncertain future.
The Bottom Line
In today’s tariff-riddled world, resilience is the new competitive advantage. Build flexibility into your network. Invest in visibility. Plan for multiple scenarios. And whatever you do, don’t wait for things to go “back to normal.”
Because if there’s one thing supply chain professionals made crystal clear at Momentum, it’s this:
Call them what you want—leverage, policy, or politics—but tariffs are locked in for the duration of this administration. And that means innovative businesses are already adapting.
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