If the past five years have shown us anything, it’s that uncertainty will remain the biggest challenge for retailers and shippers in 2026. The biggest uncertainty surrounds the Trump administration’s US trade policy and on-again, off-again tariffs. We need strategic and focused trade policies that will lower inflation and costs for hard-working American families.
As 2025 moved toward its end, the US Supreme Court heard arguments on the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). If the court upholds the lower court decisions against using tariffs under IEEPA, many expect the administration to pivot to use other tariff authorities to replace the IEEPA tariffs. We have certainly seen an expansion of scope of Section 232 tariffs and expect more of that in 2026. In addition to other tariffs, there will be significant questions about IEEPA tariff refunds and how the administration would process them.
The other major issue for 2026 will be the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which will provide an opportunity to identify and address any operational challenges the countries determine. Retailers look forward to this review process to ensure that the agreement remains trilateral, with workable rules of origin and maintains the duty-free benefits for all qualifying goods.
Retailers will do everything they can to ensure that consumers have access to high-value products at affordable prices. In order to achieve that, we need clarity from the administration and elected officials on future trade policies and time to implement these policies, which will impact sourcing decisions. As we have seen, supply chains are extremely complex, and they cannot be changed overnight.