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Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs were worse than expected—sparking a global selloff

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  • In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on Trump’s new taxes for international trade.
  • The big story: Tariffs were worse than expected.
  • The markets: Global selloff under way.
  • Analyst notes from Wedbush, EY, and Swoop Funding on—you guessed it—the tariffs, jobs, and Tesla.
  • Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. Friend or foe? It hardly mattered yesterday as Donald Trump unveiled sweeping targets against all the trading partners of the United States. The headline numbers to know: A 10% baseline tariff on all imports, with specific and higher tariffs on some countries, including 34% on China (on top of the existing 20% tariffs), 20% on the EU and as high as 46% and 49% on Vietnam and Cambodia respectively. “They do it to us, we do it to them,” the President said during the Rose Garden tariff unveiling. Some food for thought as the fallout begins:

It’s worse than expected. As the White House was ironing out details of the plan deep into Tuesday, markets were showing some signs of life as investors hoped for last-minute leniency. But stock futures took a dive following Wednesday’s announcement. Only about half of what Americans buy is made in America, according to Commerce Department data, and industries like the auto sector that have complex global supply chains. 

This undermines manufacturers’ China+1 strategy. Some Asian countries are especially hard hit with tariffs of 40% or more, dealing a blow to U.S. manufacturers’ push to diversify production beyond China to low-cost neighbors like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Cambodia, especially in areas like textiles and electronics. Gap Inc.—home to Gap, Athleta, Banana Republic and Old Navy—has reduced its exposure to China in recent years but still sources the vast majority of its apparel from Asian countries hit hard by the new tariffs. Change takes time. 

A global backlash could hurt all companies. Trump described yesterday’s tariffs as “kind” to America’s trading partners. From the anger of foreign leaders to the foreign consumers boycotting U.S. products and travel, it’s clear that our partners disagree. Hostility is bad for business, with economists from EY, Goldman Sachs, and Moodys predicting lower growth from self-inflicted tariff wounds. I spoke this week with Niccolo De Masi, CEO of quantum computing company IonQ. “We’re building all of our stuff in America,” he said. “We’re not impacted negatively by tariffs but we are realistic that our ability to succeed in Asia and Europe comes with having more of a presence there.” That’s harder to do if a trade war whips up nationalist instincts.

This could devastate hard-hit economies and industries. Jacques Vandermeiren, the CEO of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Europe’s second largest port, told my colleague Peter Vanham earlier this fall, “If Trump puts in place tariffs of up to 10 percent, we’ll deal.” Substantially higher than that, Vandermeiren warned, could spell disaster for Europe’s steel, aluminum, auto, and other export-oriented industries. Switzerland’s struggling watch industry, which exports more of its products to the U.S. than any other country, will now face a hefty 31% tariff. Will those who crave a Rolex or Patek Philippe settle for a substitute? I doubt it.

There will be much negotiating in the coming days and business leaders know from experience that what appears on paper at a press conference may not translate to action at the border–or can be swiftly reversed. And U.S. consumers, whose spending accounts for more than two-thirds of GDP, aren’t looking that excited by all these tariffs that they’re told will help them in the end. Consumer sentiment tracked by the University of Michigan has been trending down this year to the lowest level since 2022.

Adam Smith once wrote that nations rarely thrive by beggaring their neighbors. That was in 1776, when mercantilism was dying and the U.S. was being born. Freed from British rule, the young nation used tariffs to develop homegrown industries that later competed on the world stage. With a globally connected U.S now returning to tariff levels last seen in the early 1900s, as cars were just coming on the scene, the impact could be very different.

More news below.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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IRS to lose billions in revenue if migrants stop filing taxes

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The Internal Revenue Service is projected to lose more than $313 billion in revenue in the coming decade as undocumented workers are poised to pay fewer taxes after the agency struck a deal to share data with U.S. immigration authorities.

The IRS is expected to lose $12 billion in revenue for the remainder of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, according to a report out Tuesday by the Yale Budget Lab. The group estimates unauthorized workers paid about $66 billion in federal taxes in fiscal year 2023, with about two-thirds of that coming from payroll levies.

The Treasury Department—which oversees the IRS—earlier this week reached a deal with the Department of Homeland Security to share taxpayer information in response to law enforcement requests related to migration. While federal officials say the agreement includes safeguards and applies only to criminal matters, it reverses longstanding IRS privacy policies.

The report underscores the role undocumented workers play in paying into Social Security and Medicare benefit programs that they can’t draw from in retirement because of their immigration status. 

“The IRS has historically made clear to the undocumented immigrant population that their tax information is confidential and would not be used in such ways,” the report said. Tax compliance could fall among that group “if they become concerned that filing taxes could expose their personal contact information to law enforcement and be used to facilitate their deportation.”

President Donald Trump has enlisted the IRS and other government agencies in his efforts to crack down on undocumented immigration. He’s vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history, and so far is ramping up raids and encouraging undocumented immigrants to “self-deport.”

The report notes that there’s “considerable uncertainty” around the estimates, as they will depend strongly on the behaviors of undocumented immigrants and their employers. The 10-year loss in revenue could be as low as $147 billion and as high as $479 billion, according to the Budget Lab.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Why Chipotle won’t raise prices even in the event of tariffs, according to CEO Scott Boatwright

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Walmart CEO says ‘there will be a Christmas’ despite lingering fears of a trade war

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Despite the midday decision on Wednesday by President Donald Trump to pause most of his controversial tariff hikes, the risk to retailers remains very present that duties can be once again imposed in a few months, maintaining uncertainty over how they operate even as they begin to plan buying for the holiday season.

But Walmart Inc CEO Doug McMillon told investors that the world’s largest retailer has navigated many periods of uncertainty before, such a the tariff hikes of 2018 and the post-pandemic inflation surge, assuring them the company had a strategy moving forward.

“We have a plan to execute. There will be a Christmas, and people will celebrate Christmas, and they will buy items, and we will sell them those items,” McMillon said during a media briefing at the conclusion of the company’s 2025 investor day in Dallas.

Those plans include keeping a robust inventory and stocked shelves despite trade uncertainty. That’s possible in part because of Walmart’s clout with vendors, which allows it to absorb a significant part of any cost increases.

“Some of the confidence that we’ve been expressing is really founded on: we know who these buyers are,” he said. “They have great tools to manage this long-standing supplier relationship, and we believe that they will execute well.”

To be sure, the retailer is still navigating a tricky path. Although the major grocer only imports one-third of what it sells, China is the biggest source of that inventory. And China was not included in Trump’s tariff pause—in fact, it was singled out for higher tariffs. That means Walmart is still at risk from higher duties for a big chunk of its products.

But McMillon, who for years was a buyer at Walmart and Sam’s Club, said that higher tariffs can be managed by having higher margin, higher priced products subsidize lower margin items. In other words, the higher costs stemming from a tariff can be offset by a higher price imposed on an item with low price elasticity, or items whose demand is not particularly price sensitive.

The company also has a big advantage over many rivals is that many of its goods are replenishable, so it doesn’t carry the same potential risk of being forced to clear out as much discounted unsold seasonal merchandise at other retailers. Instead, it can just stop ordering new inventory, or decrease the size, if demand softens.

“Right now, our merchants are thinking about quantities,” McMillon said. But he was clear that the company had “not canceled anything yet.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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