Francis Walsh lives with tariffs in a way most people don’t.
As chairman and CEO of NRS, a third-generation logistics owner that does trucking and
transportation and warehousing for many of the country’s top retailers, Walsh sees one
side of the equation.
But as the owner of a beverage producer and a dress manufacturing company — roles
in which he sits “at the other end of the table” — he sees how the same policy hits
manufacturers, exporters, importers, retailers and consumers differently.
Walsh, in a recent Business Partners Roundtable at the New Jersey Performing Arts
Center in Newark, explained the impact of new tariffs and the struggle to determine
where its impact is felt the most.
The only thing clear is that it is unclear.
As both a logistics operator and a manufacturer, Walsh said he can see the same tariff
appearing on bills at multiple points in the chain. From his vantage point, it’s not a
simple case of “U.S. consumer vs. foreign producer,” but a series of shared hits that
move around depending on bargaining power and timing.
“I get to see how the tariffs do impact a manufacturer,” he said. “I absorb some of the
cost. The exporter absorbs a little bit of the cost. (The importer takes) it out of the supply
chain. Maybe there’s a little leftover. Sometimes the consumer’s impacted, sometimes
they’re not.”
Others on the panel — Representative Rob Menendez (D, 8 th District), Turtle executive
chairman Jayne Millard and Maersk General Counsel Peter Jabbour — largely agreed
on the complexity, even when they emphasized different parts of the story.
Millard said instability from tariffs is just a fact of life, especially in businesses like hers
that distribute power equipment and see a lot of heavily tariffed equipment, starting with
raw metals.
The constant question, she said, is who absorbs the cost across the whole supply
chain.
The answer, Millard said, is always the same: Everyone, she said.
“It’s always a negotiation,” she said, with “everyone pushing back” on who absorbs the
cost.
That doesn’t make tariffs harmless.
Menendez, who represents a district where more than 40% of his constituents are
immigrants, described talking to small shop owners in places like India Square in Jersey
City who import much of what they sell.
“They were saying that some of the prices doubled,” he said.
Those businesses face a stark choice: Either raise prices on people who are already
stretched or close.
For consumers, the congressman added, the tariff story is confusing but the feeling is
clear: “They may not understand the impact of tariffs on a daily basis, but they know
things have become increasingly expensive,” he said.
Many of President Trump’s imposed tariffs have been overturned by the courts,
meaning the money should be returned. But how much — and to whom?
That’s why Walsh said things are only going to get more confusing.
“It’s going to be very hard for the American retailers to get that money back to the
consumer, because we don’t know what we paid and what we didn’t,” he said.
The only certainty, Walsh said, is more court dates.
“I think we’re going to see a lot of class-action lawsuits,” he said.
Menendez also sees confusion and chaos.
He said no one can be certain if small businesses will see any relief for one key reason:
“I don’t know if the administration has a full plan,” he said.
That lack of a plan comes up in another area, something Walsh said is impacting pricing
more than tariffs — energy costs that are being felt daily at the gas pump.
One day, the price is ‘X,’ the next day it’s exponentially higher, Walsh said.
“That’s what’s affecting consumers,” he said.
