'Freakout': Foreign firms are reportedly scrambling ahead of Trump's 2nd term

Businesses across the globe are scrambling — even trying to frontload orders to the United States — as they stare down the second inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump and the possibility he'll follow through on enacting steep tariffs.

Trump recently threatened to impose tariffs on U.S. allies and demanded that the European Union close its trade gap with the United States. The president-elect told the EU to reduce the gap by buying oil and gas or face tariffs, which he's also threatened to levy on Canada, China and Mexico.

“I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas," Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this month. "Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way."

Companies such as Hangzhou Skytech Outdoor Co. in Shanghai and a winemaker in Germany are among businesses frantically preparing for Trump, with the former hastily trying to find other markets to tap into and the latter sprinting to fill as many orders as possible before Jan. 20, Bloomberg reported.

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“We’re still in the freakout period,” Robert Krieger, president of the customs brokerage and logistics advisory firm Krieger Worldwide, told the publication. “There’s about to be a king tide in the supply chain.”

Businesses worldwide are in panic mode as they brace for possible tariffs, according to the report. JLab has frozen hirings until mid-2025 and mulled price hikes for its headphones and other wireless products if tariffs are imposed.

Bloomberg noted that mentions of tariffs on company conference calls have skyrocketed in November and December, higher than at any time in the last four years, eclipsing the previous high of March 2020.

“If you wait too long, you’re going to find yourself trying to make the transition in a pinch,” Zipfox CEO Raine Mahdi told the outlet. “This time you’re not catching the tail end of the Trump administration, you’re catching the entire thing and with a new wrath.”