Tariffs, Trade & Turbulence: How Supply Chains Are Responding in 2025
Tariffs aren’t new, but their precision, political intent, and disruptive reach in 2025 are rewriting the rules for supply chain leaders. In a recent LinkedIn Live hosted by Deepak Mittal of NextGenInvent, supply chain veterans Scott Saunders and Dwayne Carson explored how businesses are navigating this complex moment.
Here are the top 6 takeaways from their real-world discussion.
1. Tariffs Are Targeted—and Unpredictable
According to Dwayne Carson, governments have always used tariffs to protect domestic industries, generate revenue, or influence trade partners. But today’s tariffs are different: they’re more targeted, more sector-specific, and they evolve faster than ever.
Scott Saunders highlighted how this shift has forced businesses to rethink the foundation of their operations: “You can no longer optimize purely on lowest landed cost. Today, you have to focus on high-performance extended supply chains.”
2. Some Industries Are Hit Harder Than Others
Strategic industries like semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices are experiencing the strongest push toward reshoring, thanks to tariff-backed industrial policy support. Meanwhile, sectors like apparel, consumer goods, and electronics are left absorbing cost increases without clear paths to restructure.
Scott noted that for many businesses, “Reshoring isn’t a destination—it’s a capability. The future lies in hybrid, regionalized networks that balance cost, resilience, and speed.”
3. What’s Different in 2025? More Foresight, Less Firefighting
Both speakers drew comparisons to previous tariff spikes in 2018–2019. And while there are many similarities, much has changed since then.
Businesses learned hard lessons during COVID and are now better equipped.
AI and data maturity have significantly improved.
Supply chain risk is now discussed at the board level alongside cybersecurity and climate change.
As Dwayne put it, “Strategic sourcing is no longer just about cost—it’s about reliability, diversification, and responsiveness.” And for this to work effectively, planning plays a massive role.
4. Scenario Planning Is Now a Must
The days of reactive decision-making are over. Scott shared an example of an automotive company that used a digital twin to model scenarios like 10%, 20%, and 35% tariffs on a key raw material to understand the impact on product profitability and their regional profit and loss margins. That foresight helped them act fast when a real tariff hit—while competitors scrambled.
By planning ahead and having a second set of suppliers, lead times, tooling, quality audits, inventory positioning, and logistics readiness, businesses can execute more seamlessly. In Scott’s words: “This time, we’re two moves ahead. Last time, we were rewriting the rules mid-crisis.”
5. AI is the Game-Changer
AI is helping companies monitor everything from geopolitical sentiment to supplier reliability. It scans earnings calls, shipment alerts, regional news, even social media to detect early signals of risk. It’s also being used to:
Identify if suppliers are becoming unreliable and help locate alternate suppliers based on tariff exposure, port congestion, and carbon footprint
Analyze government policy changes, regulatory risk, rising political tensions, and their ripple effects on trade routes worldwide
Support dynamic sourcing and inventory strategies based on real-time shipping patterns
“AI isn’t just enhancing resilience—it’s enabling it,” Scott said. AI can look beyond cost and lead time, but into port access while ranking trade-offs across multiple variables. One global apparel company used AI to help split their volume across new suppliers, improving responsiveness and reducing risk from 80% to under 45% in one quarter.
6. Visibility Must Go Beyond Tier 1
Many companies stop at tier 1 when mapping their supply networks, but the most critical risks often lie deeper. As highlighted in the session, 51% of supply chain disruptions are due to lack of visibility into tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers. A striking example: 98% of aluminum tariff exposure was hidden in those lower tiers. Dwayne and Scott emphasized that modern data tools now make it possible to expose these hidden dependencies—an essential step toward truly resilient supply chains.
Final Thought: Change Is the New Normal
The event closed with this powerful reminder from Dwayne:
“Don’t be a supply chain planner from the Fukushima era hoping things go back to normal. Normal is gone. Resilience needs to be part of your DNA now.”
In today’s landscape, scenario planning, AI tools, and extended visibility aren’t nice-to-haves. They’re strategic imperatives. Navigating the ever-changing and volatile world of tariffs is no easy feat, but with the right guidance and partnership, you can stay ahead of the competition. We’re here to help you take your fulfillment process to the next level. Reach out, and let’s make that happen.