High tariffs won’t guarantee a return of manufacturing to the U.S. — not until industry addresses the structural barriers that keep the country from competing with cheaper sources of production.
The USTR also has yet to provide details who would be collecting the fees, or how the money would be directed back into U.S. shipbuilding, said World Shipping Council CEO Joe Kramek.
Until businesses gain a clearer picture of the administration's trade strategy and timeline, the cycle of uncertainty is likely to persist, keeping supply chains fragile, costs unpredictable, and decisions on hold.
Recently we’ve seen the emergence of agentic AI, which signals the arrival of “autonomous” systems that appear to dispense with the need for humans altogether.