Aerial view of trucks queueing next to the border wall before crossing to the United States at Otay commercial port in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on Jan. 22, 2025.Â
Guillermo Arias | AFP | Getty Images
Industry and corporate leaders are weighing in after U.S. President Donald Trump followed through with his threat to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
On Saturday, the Trump administration senior trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro confirmed the president will follow through on 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as a 10% duty on China. Energy resources from Canada will have a lower 10% tariff.
A range of industries, from homebuilders to alcohol producers, weighed in on the impact tariffs would have on their businesses and consumers. Other company leaders voiced their concerns about the threat of tariffs ahead of Saturday’s order. Here are some of their statements.
John Murphy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce senior vice president, head of international
“The President is right to focus on major problems like our broken border and the scourge of fentanyl, but the imposition of tariffs under IEEPA is unprecedented, won’t solve these problems, and will only raise prices for American families and upend supply chains. The Chamber will consult with our members, including main street businesses across the country impacted by this move, to determine next steps to prevent economic harm to Americans. We will continue to work with Congress and the administration on solutions to address the fentanyl and border crisis.”
Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers Union
“The UAW supports aggressive tariff action to protect American manufacturing jobs as a good first step to undoing decades of anti-worker trade policy. We do not support using factory workers as pawns in a fight over immigration or drug policy. We are willing to support the Trump Administration’s use of tariffs to stop plant closures and curb the power of corporations that pit US workers against workers in other countries. But so far, Trump’s anti-worker policy at home, including dissolving collective bargaining agreements and gutting the National Labor Relations Board, leaves American workers facing worsening wages and working conditions even while the administration takes aggressive tariff action.
“If Trump is serious about bringing back good blue collar jobs destroyed by NAFTA, the USMCA, and the WTO, he should go a step further and immediately seek to renegotiate our broken trade deals. The national emergency we face is not about drugs or immigration, but about a working class that has fallen behind for generations while corporate America exploits workers abroad and consumers at home for massive Wall Street paydays. We need to stop plant closures, bring back American jobs, and stop the global race to the bottom immediately. Any tariff action must be followed with a renegotiation of the USMCA, and a full review of the corporate trade regime that has devastated the American and global working class.”
Carl Harris, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders
“On President Trump’s first day in office, he issued an executive order directing departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief by pursuing actions to lower the cost of housing and increase housing supply. This move to raise tariffs by 25% on Canadian and Mexican goods will have the opposite effect. More than 70% of the imports of two essential materials that home builders rely on â softwood lumber and gypsum (used for drywall) â come from Canada and Mexico, respectively.
Tariffs on lumber and other building materials increase the cost of construction and discourage new development, and consumers end up paying for the tariffs in the form of higher home prices. NAHB urges the administration to reconsider this action on tariffs and we will continue to work with policymakers to eliminate barriers that make housing more costly and prevent builders from boosting housing production.”
David McCall, international president of the United Steelworkers union
“The USW has long called for systemic reform of our broken trade system, but lashing out at key allies like Canada is not the way forward. Canada has proven itself time and again to be one of our strongest partners when it comes to national security, and our economies are deeply integrated.”
“Workers and their communities are counting on their elected leaders to make strategic decisions that help confront bad trade actors like China while at the same time fostering domestic manufacturing capacity. Our union calls on President Trump to reverse course on Canadian tariffs so that we can focus on trade solutions that will serve working families for the long-term.”
Tom Madrecki, Consumer Brands Association’s vice president of supply chain resiliency
“Tariffs on all imported goods from Mexico and Canada â especially on ingredients and inputs that aren’t available in the U.S. â could lead to higher consumer prices and retaliation against U.S. exporters. Despite sourcing the vast majority of ingredients and inputs from U.S. farms and domestic suppliers, CPG companies depend on global supply chains for certain imports due to unique growing conditions and other limiting factors around the world.
“We urge leaders in Mexico and Canada to work with President Trump to protect consumers’ access to affordable products and remove tariffs that could contribute to grocery inflation.”
The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., the Chamber of the Tequila Industry and Spirits Canada
“Our associations are committed to working collaboratively with all stakeholders to explore solutions that prevent potential tariffs on distilled spirits. We are deeply concerned that U.S. tariffs on imported spirits from Canada and Mexico will significantly harm all three countries and lead to a cycle of retaliatory tariffs that negatively impacts our shared industry.”
Matthew Shay, CEO of the National Retail Federation
Across-the-board tariffs are “a tax on American families” and “will drive inflation and price increases and will result in job losses.”
Shannon Williams, CEO of the Home Furnishings Association
“By early next week, we are anticipating that retailers will be hit with price increases from manufacturers to cover the cost of the tariffs.”
Retailers brace for price increases
Walmart CFO John David Rainey told CNBC in November: “We never want to raise prices. Our model is everyday low prices. But there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers.”
Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison told CNBC: “We’re not waiting to act. We’ve got plans in place. We’ve got scenarios in place, and we’re trying to understand the implications.”
Levi’s finance chief Harmit Singh in January: The “first objective would be to minimize the impact on the consumer. So we work internally with our suppliers, we look at our cost base, we look at other pricing opportunities and if we cannot cover it, obviously we got to protect the structural economics of the business. At that point, we’ll decide, you know, what should be passed on to the consumer or not, but we won’t start from that. That’s where we will end.”
Shein executive chairman Donald Tang told CNBC in January that the retailer’s products can remain affordable as long as proposed tariffs from President Donald Trump are “applied equally.”
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said in November that higher costs from tariffs would be shared by the company, vendors and customers: “These are goods that people need, and higher prices are not helpful.”
Steve Madden CEO Edward Rosenfeld said in November that the brand has been “planning for a potential scenario in which we would have to move goods out of China more quickly.”
