After the Supreme Court’s reversal of IEEPA tariffs, a new combination of Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs is rapidly reshaping the trade landscape for US importers.
Legal and trade advisers at Foley and Lardner LLP are urging supply chain leaders to revisit the core assumptions that guided their sourcing and logistics decisions before 2025.
Supplier concentration, lean inventory models, long-distance sourcing, and limited redundancy may all become more costly or less sustainable as tariffs potentially expand or shift rapidly.
For many importers, the central question is no longer whether tariffs will increase, but whether their supply chain is structurally designed to adapt when they do.
The first area supply chain leaders should address is single-country and single-supplier dependence, which can create unacceptable cost and continuity risk when tariffs are imposed quickly or target a particular market.
Companies that rely on one country, supplier, or production site for critical goods or inputs may find themselves exposed to sudden and severe disruption with little room to manoeuvre.
The second key consideration is the assumption that lowest unit cost automatically equates to lowest total cost, an equation that breaks down quickly once tariffs, logistics disruption, and compliance burdens are factored in.
Foley and Lardner advises that supply chain leaders incorporate total landed cost and strategic resilience into sourcing decisions, rather than relying solely on nominal purchase prices.
Third, building more regional and flexible supply options gives businesses backup capacity, ensuring they are not forced into emergency sourcing arrangements if trade conditions shift unexpectedly.
Fourth, improving visibility into lower-tier supply chains is critical, because tariff risk frequently extends well beyond direct suppliers to sub-suppliers where exposure may be hidden or underestimated.
Fifth, lean inventory models and long-distance sourcing strategies optimised for a low-tariff environment may now require fundamental rethinking in light of renewed tariff volatility and shifting trade policy.
Companies that map sub-supplier exposure and stress-test their sourcing models against a range of tariff scenarios will be far better placed to respond when policy changes accelerate.
The firms that fare best in this environment, according to Foley and Lardner, will be those that prepare before policy changes force rapid and costly decisions under pressure.
Supply chain resilience is increasingly a board-level concern, with trade policy unpredictability now a structural feature of the global business environment rather than a temporary disruption.