What we’re hearing from businesses about tariffs

Last week, President Trump released his long-awaited tariff plan, raising the effective U.S. tariff rate from about 2% to 27%, with a minimum 10% tariff on nearly all imports. While some tariffs were paused today, businesses are still processing these changes.

The new tariffs are the largest tariff increase in over 100 years. Their rapid introduction has led businesses to reevaluate business plans, vendors, cost structures, supply chains, and new investments. Little data is available to show the impacts of these new policies.

Today, Ramp is sharing a first look of what we’ve observed on our spend platform and in our conversations with businesses. We spoke to more than 30 business leaders in the construction, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail sectors about how they expect tariffs to impact their businesses. We’ve removed all identifying information and summarized their comments here.

As of March 2025, Ramp data does not show a slowdown in business activity

In an analysis of continuously active businesses across sectors, Ramp found no evidence that businesses have significantly changed their spending in recent weeks, where spend has remained within 1% of the previous month’s baseline. We believe these results are consistent with a “wait and see” approach from businesses, holding to business-as-usual while waiting for policy action from the administration. These results hold even in industries most exposed to trade, including manufacturing.

Business leaders express frustration with heightened policy uncertainty

The most common sentiment we hear is frustration with policy uncertainty. Business leaders tell us they are assembling project groups to assess the impact of tariffs on their businesses, evaluate cost cuts, and assess new vendors. Despite these efforts, businesses also reported being unsure how to plan amid the shifting policy environment. In addition, a number of businesses shared with us that they have paused all capital expenditures until tariff policy is clearly settled.

Businesses are evaluating new vendors, but those transitions have not yet occurred and may take time

We have not yet seen a significant number of businesses shift from foreign to domestic vendors following the tariff announcement. We anticipate that this transition could take several quarters, and in some cases, years to take effect, particularly in the manufacturing and construction sectors. Anecdotally, we have heard that businesses are not necessarily planning to reshore all vendors in the U.S., instead evaluating suppliers from countries subject to lower tariff rates. Meanwhile, retaliatory tariffs against the United States may reduce exports. The net effect of these two trends (imports shifting to other foreign countries and exports falling) could widen the trade deficit, though the effects may take months to show up in spend data as markets adjust.

For businesses who can’t switch vendors, the broad nature of the tariffs is a key frustration

One CEO, whose business manufactures in the U.S., expressed disappointment that their business was subject to tariffs, given that their product relies on coconut oil (coconuts do not grow in most of the United States). The CEO told us they would not be changing suppliers, but they did expect a hit to profits and shared that retaliatory tariffs would impact their plans to sell abroad.

Final thoughts

The administration has signalled a willingness to negotiate the latest tariff plans. This announcement has been viewed positively by businesses, but suggests that policy uncertainty will continue into the near future.

We’ll continue to monitor policy developments closely and will provide updates as the situation evolves. In the meantime, we encourage businesses to focus on building resilience through measured, strategic adjustments.