Tariff scramble set to hit high gear

Major US corporations and trading partners are scrambling to adapt to a new global economy, even as President Donald Trump mulls the imposition of historic tariffs in less than two weeks, The Washington Post reported.

Conagra Brands, owner of Hunt's, Duncan Hines and Birds Eye, plans to raise prices on canned goods after "suffering a tremendous amount of inflation due to tariffs on tinplate steel," its chief executive told investors this month.

Tariffs are causing Fastenal, an industrial supplier, to split its imports into separate shipments to Canada and the United States, creating "a more expensive supply chain" than its customary, unified North American approach.

And Nike, the world's largest athletic apparel and footwear maker, is scrutinizing its operations for savings to offset the $1 billion in new import taxes it expects to pay this year. The company plans "a surgical price increase" this fall.

Six months of the president's disruptive trade policy has unsettled business leaders and policymakers alike.

With a blizzard of new levies on major nations and selected product sectors, Trump has lifted the average tax on imported goods from just above 2 percent in January to around 15 percent, the highest mark since the early 1940s, according to Capital Economics, in London.

That figure could head higher if many countries do not reach tariff deals by the president's new Aug. 1 deadline. Stung by Trump's unpredictable demands, close U.S. allies including those in Europe are trying to develop alternative trade links that skirt the U.S. market.

If the exact dimensions of the new U.S. tariff regime are unsettled, the outlines have become clear. Taxes on U.S. imports will likely stay much higher than they have been for several decades. And the American role in the global economy is undergoing a profound change, with consequences for the rest of the world. Source: The Washington Post