Skip to Content Facebook Feature Image

Small-, medium-sized retailers "hit hardest" by U.S. tariff policy: logistics expert

China

China

China

Small-, medium-sized retailers "hit hardest" by U.S. tariff policy: logistics expert

2025-05-03 00:28 Last Updated At:16:12

Small- and medium-sized retailers across the United States "are getting hit the hardest" by disrupted supply chains, as U.S. tariff actions fuel market chaos and panic, a U.S. logistics industry insider based in China warned.

Sam Boyd, managing partner at Guided Imports -- a cross-border logistics company serving many American small businesses that rely on Chinese manufacturing -- told China Media Group (CMG) that the tariff policies introduced by the Trump administration have left many importers unsure about how to respond.

"Small- to medium-sized retailers and e-commerce companies, who are usually purchasing their goods close to when they're going out of stock, are getting hit the hardest. It's difficult for businesses to really understand what to do, so most of the businesses are just being forced to wait. And what they've learned over the last two-week period is that these escalations have no ceiling. The majority of our customers have opted to pause their shipments leaving from China. And the downside with this is that they're going to go out of stock," said Boyd.

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), container imports to the U.S. are expected to fall by more than 20 percent year over year in the second half of 2025.

Boyd warned that the consequences of paused shipments could extend beyond inventory shortfalls, creating ripple effects that threaten port operations and U.S. domestic logistics.

"But there's an even more significant ripple effect that we're not quite aware of, which is: because so many businesses have chosen to pause their shipments and wait, we're creating a backup -- or a future backup -- that's going to be seen at U.S. ports. So let's say that there is going to be an event that solves this tariffs issue, and it's to everyone's liking enough that they can start placing orders again. By the time they all [those shipments] start arriving at the ports, it's going to create a surge. And this is going to create a surge in shipping costs, and it is going to create a surge in trucking within the U.S.," he said.

Boyd also questioned the U.S. government's repeated calls to bring manufacturing back home, arguing that such efforts are far from realistic given China's deep industrial capacity.

"The concept of reassuring is a very nice concept for those who are many degrees away from manufacturing. But China has so much experience with manufacturing that for any country -- whether it be the United States or one of China's neighbors that try to take over -- it's not going to be something that we can just flip a switch and all of a sudden, you know, a new country becomes the manufacturer," said Boyd.

Small-, medium-sized retailers "hit hardest" by U.S. tariff policy: logistics expert

Small-, medium-sized retailers "hit hardest" by U.S. tariff policy: logistics expert

Small-, medium-sized retailers "hit hardest" by U.S. tariff policy: logistics expert

Small-, medium-sized retailers "hit hardest" by U.S. tariff policy: logistics expert

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight

Recommended Articles