Do you have enough information to work out how to deal with Trump’s tariffs?

The imposition of new tariffs by the Trump administration has created major problems for companies that export goods to the USA as well as US companies that manufacture outside their home market. Asian manufacturers are particularly badly affected as China has been hit with a 54% tariff on goods (with the US president threatening to increase this by a further 50%) and Vietnam 46%. The EU is looking at 20% tariffs but the UK only 10% which is the baseline tariff level across the world. How will companies respond to these new barriers to trade? 

 

Companies need data to inform their choices 

Businesses will be scrambling to identify the problems they face and to work out what the alternative solutions might be. They may look at short-term measures such as splitting the tariff cost with their US trading partner, or start to consider other mitigation strategies like diversifying their supply chains to source materials from the USA, or countries with lower tariff rates, or shift production to America.

Part of this decision-making process will be the gathering of relevant information about the different options, including facts and expert opinions that inform their choices. Strategic Allies Ltd (SAL) has been helping manufacturing companies with these sort of decisions for the last 20 years with our partner search and technology scouting services which can quickly provide new options after only a month of research. 

 

Strategic Allies interviews suppliers and manufacturers to provide information for decision-making 

Interviews are a key part of SAL’s research process where we generate recommendations of new suppliers and manufacturers that best fit our client’s requirements. Whilst websites and trade press articles can provide an overview of a company’s capabilities, we know that lots of vital information never appears on a webpage and nothing beats talking to companies directly. We quiz potential partners to find out about their products and services. We ask the basic questions about product pricing, availability and lead times. But we also understand the detailed technical data that clients need and can enquire about R&D, customisation and manufacturing services that companies may offer. We probe what suppliers and manufacturers think about the challenges and opportunities ahead and explore how they would work with a new customer or business partner. 

A quick scan of our Collaborate webpage will give you a feel for the broad range of sectors that SAL works across. We have found suppliers of ingredients in specific countries for procurement and raw materials teams in the food and beverage and cosmetics industries sectors (see our recent partner search into beverage development and manufacturing and Ingredient replacement: Finding biodegradable and safe alternatives). We know who to go to if you need electronic components or batteries (see our Sustainable electronics case study). If a client wants to manufacture chemicals at scale (see our Sustainable manufacture of hydrocarbons case study) or needs specific types of packaging for their products (see our Manufacturing Partner for aluminium bottles & caps search) we have explored these supply chains before. Our case studies section details many of these.  Many of these suppliers and manufacturers are part of our network and we inform them of all our new partner and technology scouting searches, so we can quickly provide clients with solutions.   

 

Strategic Allies can landscape new markets or technologies to help with strategic plans 

The imposition of new US tariffs may make companies appraise their products, services and go-to-market strategies and determine they need more of an overview of a market or technology space before they make any decisions. SAL can deliver a commercial or technical landscaping study in as little as one or two months to provide actionable insights and tailored recommendations on possible next steps. Some of our clients have taken the results of these landscaping reviews and then asked SAL to deep dive into a partner or technology scouting search to provide them with concrete options on how to proceed.  

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you to mitigate the effects of the Trump Administration’s tariffs, please contact  John Allies at john@strategicallies.co.uk