Survey: More Than 60% of Firms Expect Double-Digit Cost Increases From Tariffs
Nearly half of business leaders say President Donald Trump’s newly imposed tariffs will drive up their operating costs by at least 15% and more than half of all companies plan to pass along a majority of their cost increases to customers.
Those are some of the major findings from a new poll by Endeavor Business Intelligence, the research arm of IndustryWeek parent company Endeavor Business Media. More than 400 business leaders from manufacturing and other key sectors responded to the poll launched after Trump’s April 2 announcement of a series of tariffs against most of the United States’ trading partners.
In all, two-thirds of respondents to EBI’s poll say the new tariffs will negatively affect their operations while 25% say they’ll benefit at least somewhat from the trade measures. Nearly half of people surveyed said tariffs either had already been significantly affecting their operations or had started to in the wake of last week’s news.
IndustryWeek readers in February expressed significant concerns with Trump’s tariff plans, and the new results closely match that survey.
The potential cost impacts, respondents told EBI, look to be large: 21% said they expect operating expenses to rise by more than a quarter while another 27% are forecasting they’ll climb between 16% and 25%. More than six out of 10 people told EBI they expect double-digit increases in operating costs. By contrast, nearly one out of four respondents said their costs will stay flat or climb less than 5%.
“For many companies, the most immediate consequences of tariffs are cost increases and logistical headaches, not just shifts in global demand,” the report says.
Executives’ most likely response by a mile is to raise the prices of their goods and services: 51% say they’re looking to pass along most of their new tariff-related costs. The second-most popular response looks to the long term: About one in eight say their most likely action in response to tariffs will be to invest in domestic operations or production capacity.
You can download the full EBI report here. And for a broad roundup of post-April tariff coverage from a wide range of Endeavor Business Media brands, click here.
