U.S. CEOs Agree: Higher Tariffs Will Wreck Markets

While U.S. business leaders have varying opinions on regulations, taxes, immigration, and geopolitics, there is unanimous opposition to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

These tariffs will result in lower GDP and higher inflation for all affected countries.

While China remains a complicated issue due to accusations of dumping, intellectual property theft, and other concerns, not a single CEO supports imposing high tariffs on Canada and Mexico, Fortune analyst Diane Brady wrote.

The reasoning is simple: tariffs function as taxes on American consumers and businesses. They will disrupt carefully calibrated supply chains that have been optimized over two generations of free trade.

The North American auto trade pact, for example, has existed for even longer—approximately 40% of General Motors’ North American production takes place outside the U.S.

These tariffs will result in lower GDP and higher inflation for all affected countries. Worse, they penalize key trading partners and unfairly target people with no connection to immigration or drug trafficking.

“The only drug trade I associate with Canada is Americans heading north to buy cheaper prescription drugs,” Brady quipped.

Jay Timmons, CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, pointed out that one-third of critical U.S. manufacturing inputs now come from Canada or Mexico, “rather than from competitors that often engage in unfair trade practices.”

Even United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain criticized the tariffs, stating that the union does “not support using factory workers as pawns in a fight over immigration or drug policy.”

Meanwhile, U.S. trade partners are already retaliating. Ontario and other Canadian provinces have begun removing American alcohol from store shelves, with more countermeasures expected.

“Nobody wins in this trade war,” one Canadian CEO told Brady. “Short of moving production south of the border, there’s nothing we can do about it.”