David Warrick, EVP at Overhaul, joined Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss tariffs with China.
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00:00And let's talk about then, let's start with what exactly is happening with China, because last month, China and the United States came to a temporary agreement for 90 days where they majorly rolled back the tariffs.
00:10But that's seemingly this relationship is seemingly falling apart over the past couple of days, because I want to read what President Trump said over the weekend.
00:17He claimed that China, quote, has totally violated its agreement with the U.S. and China rejected wholeheartedly that allegation.
00:26And China's commerce ministry said that the actions from the United States, quote, seriously undermine the existing consensus reached at the Geneva economic and trade talks and seriously damage China's legitimate rights and interests.
00:38What do you what do you make of where we are right now in the trade negotiations with the United States and China?
00:43I really do hope that this is, you know, this is some active positioning.
00:51And, you know, I think a number of very senior, you know, members of the cabinet have said it's really going to require a conversation between between the two leaders.
01:02And if that conversation can happen, and again, there's speculation that could be this week.
01:07If that conversation happens, I firmly believe that it will it will allow us to get over this current impasse and move forward.
01:17But that depends on to the two most senior leaders probably in the world being able to come together and have a conversation and really push the agenda forward.
01:28So I, you know, in this current phase, to be honest, I don't depend on anything happening as it should.
01:36But I always I'm very hopeful that common sense will prevail and the conversation will happen and we'll move on.
01:44And so I know you said that all eyes are on China and then people can figure out their next steps depending on what that negotiation, what that deal looks like.
01:52I mean, what do you think, what are some indications of what that deal looks like before people make their next moves?
01:58I mean, what should people be looking out for?
02:01I mean, I think people should be looking out for, you know, what does the final result look like?
02:07So this is a very interesting, you know, psychological test.
02:11So there was no tariffs or there was 20% tariffs.
02:15Suddenly that became 145%.
02:17Then it reverts back to 30%.
02:19And we all celebrate it.
02:21But if you think about it, we're actually still in a worse position than where we started.
02:25So so from a so from a pure, you know, if I told you, hey, this thing that you were going, if you were going to buy this particular item in February, and then I told you it was going to be 145% more expensive.
02:37And now after through all of the different conversations, it's still going to end up 30% more expensive.
02:44You kind of look at that and go on, okay, that's a really interesting in terms of the cycle that we've been through.
02:49So what does success look like?
02:51A good outcome looks like a fair balance of trade for all countries around the world.
02:57It is our ability to be able to streamline and optimize the supply chain to accommodate all of that.
03:04And it really is the stop of these knee jerk reactions.
03:08I mean, you know, one of the indicators that supply chain professionals look for are, you know, the shipping rates coming from China.
03:15How much does it cost to ship a container from one of the southern Chinese ports into Long Beach or into, you know, the port of Seattle?
03:23And those rates have been fluctuating madly over the last six weeks as the different decision points happen.
03:31Supply chains work best when there's some level of stability.
03:34So how do we get to that level of stability?
03:36I'm not a politician.
03:38I can't tell you how those conversations need to work.
03:40But I do believe that it's better for everyone if we can get to an agreement.