Businesses sound alarm as Trump tariff chaos hits consumers

LONDON/NEW YORK/ WASHINGTON: With each day, evidence is mounting across the corporate world that the chaotic implementation of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs is translating into caution on Main Street.

The uncertainty brought by Trump’s threats of tariffs and his shape-shifting trade policies is starting to have a chilling effect across many industries, businesses warn, as consumers pull back on everything from basic goods to travel.

The president’s back-and-forth tariff moves against major trading partners have kept markets on edge, and prompted companies to warn they may have to raise prices, which could boost inflation and dent economic growth.

The White House fired another salvo on Tuesday, when Trump said he would double the planned tariff on all steel and aluminium imports from Canada to 50%. While Trump has said his policies could cause short-term pain, investor concerns about their economic fallout have intensified after he declined over the weekend to predict whether his economic policies would cause a recession.

Those worries have translated into a two-day market selloff this week that has wiped nearly $5 trillion in market value from the S&P 500’s peak last month, when Wall Street was cheering much of Trump’s agenda. Even as markets have stumbled, CEOs have largely refrained from publicly criticizing Trump’s trade policies, instead citing “uncertainty” for ebbing confidence.

Several of Trump’s economic advisers have alternated between downplaying the market’s concerns and stressing the need to reorient the economy toward domestic manufacturing, even if it causes near-term damage.

“The administration is saying this is a blip or whatever,” said Byron Callan, managing director at Capital Alpha Partners. “There’s maybe this willingness to just kind of punch through and try and prove markets are wrong. But that can carry a lot of risk … it’s the judgment of a small group of people against the judgment of millions of people.”

Speaking after the market close on Monday, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian warned that economic worries among consumers and businesses were hurting domestic travel, without referencing tariffs directly. He noted several sectors were showing softness, including autos, technology, media, and aerospace and defense.

“We saw companies start to pull back. Corporate spending started to stall,” Bastian told CNBC on Monday. “Consumers in a discretionary business do not like uncertainty.”

Trump is expected to speak with around 100 CEOs later on Tuesday, including the heads of JPMorgan Chase, Walmart and General Motors at a regular meeting of the Business Roundtable in Washington. The Republican president met with technology company executives at the White House on Monday.

LATEST TARIFFS

The latest round of Trump tariffs - 25% levies on imported steel and aluminium - kick in on Wednesday. They will apply to millions of tons of steel and aluminium imports from Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and other countries that had been entering the US duty-free under previous carve-outs.

Trump has vowed the tariffs will be applied “without exceptions or exemptions” to try to aid the struggling US industries.

Trump said on Tuesday his latest retaliation against Canada was because the province of Ontario imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity it exports to the United States.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump also threatened to “substantially increase” tariffs on cars coming into the United States on April 2 “if other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada.”

Ahead of these measures, a range of recent surveys of US businesses and consumers has shown deteriorating sentiment, which, if sustained, could hamper investment and household spending.

The National Federation of Independent Business - a Washington lobby group whose members staunchly supported Trump in the 2024 election - reported small business sentiment weakened for a third straight month, erasing the bump from Trump’s election victory.

“The mere risk of severe policy changes reflected by this uncertainty is enough to have an impact on the economy, even in the absence of any actual policy changes,” said Rogier Quaedvlieg, ABN Amro’s senior US economist.