What do you do if you’re a US importer right now? Particularly if you’re importing goods from China?
Stockpile, obviously.
The market has so far dismissed the chance of 10% across-the-board US tariffs and 60% tariffs on China but some level of China tariffs is highly likely and you can’t rule anything out with Trump.
I imagine that orders for imported goods right now are skyrocketing. That will ripple through US economic data and risks skewing the signals. I’d expect it to depress Q4 and Q1 GDP due to the drag from trade but it could be balanced by rising inventories. Mostly, it risks making economic data tougher to read.