More than seven months after President Donald Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs, North Texas businesses should act to mitigate their own import pain if they’re not already, a trade expert said during a Fort Worth business group event.
“There used to be a time to say, ‘Let’s see how much pain this causes us, and we’ll see what we’re going to do,’” said Shane Williams, a Houston-based managing director of global trade at Ernst & Young, the multinational accounting firm.
But heavy import taxes are still in place after months of whirlwind trade announcements made by the president. According to one recent analysis by The New York Times, nearly half of all goods entering the country are now subject to tariffs.
And it’s now in local businesses’ interests to strategize on how best to lower their own costs from the duties, Williams added.
“The time to kind of wait it out and see is kind of over, in all honesty,” he said.
Williams made the comments during an economic impact forum event hosted by the Fort Worth Chamber at the Kimbell Art Museum.
He was joined in the discussion by Joshua Griffith, a development manager at Hillwood who oversees the local real estate giant’s operations at Foreign Trade Zone #196, a specially designated logistics hub operated by Hillwood near Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport.
The discussion was moderated by JR Holcomb, a Hillwood director who leads marketing and communication for the special trade district.
Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) are locations near U.S. international ports of entry that are designated as outside the normal jurisdiction of U.S. Customs territory for tax purposes, thereby allowing the companies who operate there to save money by paying lower trade duties. Several hundred such locations exist throughout the country; at nearly 10,000 acres, the Fort Worth site is among the largest.
‘Insurance policy’
Much of Tuesday’s discussion aimed to help local companies familiarize themselves with the concept of FTZs, as well as the various other strategies businesses can take to lower tariff-born costs.
Those strategies include potential duty refund programs and the Temporary Importation under Bond program, which allows importers to bring in goods without paying duties as long as the products are subsequently exported.
“Over the past several months you’ve seen a lot of reaction happening with companies with all these trade agreements going on,” said Griffith. But he argued the companies that were already operating within the FTZ were faring better.
“Think of it like an insurance policy, when the trade is fluctuating each and every day, each and every week.”
Griffith added that the strategy discussion was not intended as a political rebuke. “This isn’t ripping a previous administration, a current administration,” he said. “This is part of business. This is Government Economics 101.”
The forum took place as major questions continue to swirl around Trump’s signature economic policy agenda.
Earlier this year the president’s initial announcement of heavy taxes on imports from nearly 100 countries effectively upended the established global trade order and raised fears of widespread economic damage.
Since then Trump has often threatened new levies and also abruptly modified the tariffs frequently, sometimes striking deals to subsequently lower certain rates.
Recently, Trump has said he plans to use revenue from the import taxes to provide middle- and lower-income Americans with a dividend of around $2,000, although experts say the idea is not financially feasible.
Currently, Trump’s tariffs are also the subject of a closely watched case before the Supreme Court, with the justices weighing whether Trump actually had authority under a presidential economic emergency power to impose his sweeping tariff program in the first place.
The U.S. Constitution explicitly gives Congress the authority to impose the duties, although in recent decades multiple presidents have asserted more power over the import levies.
Still, no matter how the current Supreme Court case plays out, most economists expect that relatively high tariff levels are likely to stick around, at least in some form. Williams also suggested as much in his remarks.
“This is just how we’re going to operate, regardless of what happens in three years,” he said, referring to the 2028 presidential election. “Once you start giving the government money, they’re not going to fully give it back.”
