One can say that we certainly live in interesting times!
The US administration believes that a “rebalancing” of trade conditions is required, and part of the rebalancing involves tariffs. This has sparked a huge debate and also a panic in the stock markets- resulting in wild swings in the days after.
Those of us that have been involved in international trade are well aware of the “inconsistencies” that occur in trade across the globe and maybe we have just become “immune” to the impacts that they make. In fact, tariffs are just one of the trade issues that impact our business. Biosecurity measures, inconsistent regulatory requirements, and other controls actually have a far greater impact. Access to markets both ways are manipulated to control imports and exports to protect national interests. And it certainly impacts the animal health industry.
My suggestion is to do your own homework to understand the issues and the dynamics. WTO.ORG provides a nice, consolidated list of tariffs by country. Also, a great study in tariff strategy is the history of the Australian automobile industry. As for the veterinary pharmaceutical industry, my view is that the tariff impact will be limited, but time will tell. The bigger threat is supply chain disruption if events escalate.
Meanwhile, try not to look too often at your 401K…and have multiple suppliers of critical items in your products.
Paul Casady
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