President Donald Trump’s new tariffs last week “introduced an exponential amount of uncertainty” for US importers, the Consumer Technology Association’s Ed Brzytwa told Semafor.
His comments come after the Trump administration rolled out new levies on 60 economies and teased 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods, 100% tariffs on generic drugs, and “substantial” tariffs on the European Union.
With the tariffs that lapsed Friday, “we knew what we were getting,” Brzytwa, vice president of international trade, said.
Now, that “period of stability” is over sooner than expected, he added. “I’ve always told people that we should expect more uncertainty in the fall, and actually now we’re seeing it in summer.”
He pointed to importers’ inability to submit comments on the Canadian tariffs as well as unanswered questions over whether officials might exempt additional goods from the 60-country tariffs and how those tariffs might interact with levies that stem from ongoing investigations, including into semiconductors.
A senior administration official last week brushed off such concerns as a natural outcome of a dramatic break with longstanding trade policy.