A year into President Trump’s trade war, the retail industry has been disproportionately affected by his use of tariffs, CNBC reports. While some industries have emerged largely unscathed in the aftermath of Trump’s “Liberation Day” launch of such taxes on April 2, 2025 (and the ensuing twists and turns of several tariff iterations), others, such as retail, automotive, consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals are navigating a new reality in global supply chains.
That’s been particularly true for retail, according to Max Kahn, President of Coresight Research.
“One of the things that really started back with the pandemic is that retailers have become much better at building flexibility in their supply chains, and that got accelerated a lot last year with tariffs,” Kahn told the news service. “Shocks to the system or unexpected events are a little bit more business as usual now.”
Mega-retailers such as Walmart, which have a range of different revenue streams and deep negotiating power, have emerged relatively unscathed, while smaller businesses have been crushed, CNBC reported.
“Several retailers said that although they initially estimated they would see significant hits to revenue and profitability after the new tariffs were imposed, they’ve since taken a new approach, aiming to not rely too heavily on any single country for imports or manufacturing,” the news service noted. “And, for the most part, they’ve managed to avoid the massive impact that many projected at the start of the trade war.”
