Ryan Petersen didn’t expect to be crisis-managing on a livestream watched by thousands of nervous customers last Thursday. But that’s exactly where he found himself—fielding urgent questions after Donald Trump abrupt announcement of sweeping new tariffs, dubbed “Liberation Day,” sent a shockwave through global trade overnight. As the founder and CEO of Flexport, one of the largest logistics and customs brokerage firms in the U.S. Petersen had no choice but to jump into the chaos. What followed was a frantic 24 hours of decoding policy documents, writing emergency guidance. And attempting to soothe a supply chain industry suddenly thrown into disarray.
“I had to go study it all myself,” Petersen later told a crowd at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, recounting how quickly things escalated. “We actually broke our livestreaming tool—just couldn’t handle the traffic.”
The sense of urgency was justified. Under the new tariffs, some goods from China could face duties of up to 79%, and the U.S. de minimis threshold. Once a key advantage for e-commerce brands—was effectively wiped out. That alone threatens the operating model of thousands of online sellers who rely on cross-border shipping and duty-free fulfillment from Mexico.
“More than 30% of the bigger e-commerce brands had shifted fulfillment to Mexico,” Petersen explained. “That advantage just vanished.”
Even businesses that thought they had smartly diversified away from China weren’t spared. Vietnam, often seen as the next best option for sourcing, was hit with a hefty 46% tariff. Petersen, who had already met with over 200 clients this year to discuss shifting supply chains, wasn’t shocked by the move. “I figured this round would hit almost everyone,” he said.
But the real game-changer, according to Petersen, was the unexpected blow to the global de minimis rule. Without it, direct-to-consumer imports now face customs scrutiny and added costs. Disrupting the operations of platforms like Temu and Shein, and thousands of Shopify merchants that built businesses around cross-border efficiencies.
The changes didn’t just raise import costs—they raised panic. Flexport’s role quickly expanded from logistics partner to emergency translator of fast-changing regulations. Petersen found himself not only updating clients but also fielding texts from hedge fund managers and tech investors. One Nvidia backer even reached out to confirm Flexport’s early discovery that semiconductors were excluded from the new tariffs.
“We were first to spot that carve-out,” Petersen noted. “It was right there in the fine print.”
Still, what companies needed even more than data was steady leadership. Petersen emphasized the importance of composure when a storm hits. “In times like this, people rally around the calmest person in the room,” he told the crowd. “If you lead a company, you can’t afford to panic—even if you’re screaming inside.”
And the turbulence isn’t over. A separate rule under review could impose fees of up to $1.5 million per port visit for ships made in China, or even ships owned by carriers that have Chinese-built vessels in their fleet. The aim is to incentivize American shipbuilding, but Petersen fears it will push shipping companies to avoid U.S. stops altogether—hurting port workers and driving up costs for importers.
Still, he’s not ready to declare the death of free trade. Behind the scenes, there are signs of diplomacy at work. Vietnam and Israel, for instance, responded swiftly by removing tariffs on U.S. exports—moves that hint at a possible shift toward more bilateral deals rather than escalating trade wars.
One thing’s clear: the pace of change in global trade has rarely been this fast—or this chaotic. Petersen and the Flexport team are doing everything they can to stay ahead of it, even if that means writing policy breakdowns at midnight or rebooting servers under webinar stress. For importers facing existential questions about their business models, it’s the clarity—and calm—they need most.
