Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport Ryan Petersen amid tariff disorders: “You cannot be scary”

At 11 am in California last Thursday, a day after President Donald Trump announced that the new customs duties were invaded under what was called “Editorial Day”, Ryan Petersen lived on the camera, as he presented questions from a virtual room full of more than 2,300 worries. Founder and CEO of FlexportAnd a 12 -year -old logistical company and a 12 -year -old customer mediation, spent the day before studying beautiful printing himself, preparing to explain an amazing new truth for us.

“We have broken the live broadcast platform,” said Petsen half that night in TECHRUNICHTRICRITLYVC event In San Francisco. “We need to get better.”

In less than 24 hours, the world of trade turned upside down. Accumulated definitions of 79 % will be applied soon to a range of products from China, including sofas. Direct charging models are subject to the consumer, as soon as they are protected by the minimum fee of fees, which is less than $ 800, for new customs obligations. Meanwhile, US ports are preparing for a proposed base that can slap the ocean transport companies of $ 1.5 million per port of a port if their ships are in China – or even if they have one in demand.

“It is terrifying for our customers,” Petersen said at this event. “For some of these companies, for many of our customers, (chain changes) will be a kind of life and death decisions.”

Flexport, one of the largest customs brokerage firms in the United States, had no choice but to advance quickly. Indeed this year, Petersen said he had spoken personally with 200 customers, and many of them relied heavily on Vietnam for production, believing that they had diversified away from China in time.

But Petersen said he was not surprised that Vietnam had slapped a tariff of 46 %. “I expected that there would be largely duties everywhere, and that’s what we saw.”

He pointed out that the real surprise is the advertisement that has not been canceled that the United States will close the DE Minimis program in the world. Change affects the business models of e -commerce giants such as TEMU and Shein, as well as thousands of stores based on stores that deal with loyalty from near Mexico.

“More than 30 % of all brands for e-commerce-big brands-created their investigation in Mexico,” Petsen explained. “All this goes away, or at least the exempt from customs duties.”

Petersen-believer in the so-called Founder Whoever speaks with up to 50 employees daily – did not wait to start leaving the word. “I had to go to drilling and try to understand these things,” he told the public. Then when we started to feel that I understood, I wrote a post about a blog about De Mimineris. carving. I had one of the largest investors in Nafidia saying, “Where do you see this?” I am like, “He (says that in the new law).”

It is not surprising, that what Flexport sought to present in the wake of the new tariff war that Trump was not just logistical guidelines, as Petsen explained. It was stability. Flexport staff need it, definitely. “The first rule in a crisis is that everyone will wander around the most room,” said Petersen. “You know, you are a company leader. You cannot scare, even if you are inside; you will scare your company.”

Coldheads are something that Flexport needs now. With tariff schedules, customs bases, and shipping costs to flow, customers turn into Flexport to understand what appears to be complete chaos.

And even more disorder waving on the horizon. A suspended proposal from the American Trade Representative is threatened to impose amazing port fees on Chinese Chinese ships, and even on ships owned by transport companies with Chinese ships in their fleet.

“They say they will go to fees … if the ship that was made in China, I think it is a million dollars … one and a half million every time they come to the United States,” said Petersen.

The goal, according to the administration, is to stimulate the construction of American ships. The possible result, in Petersen’s opinion, is more prevalent costs that have been passed to the importers of the United States, and many marine workers who lose their jobs as ships are looking to reduce the number of stations they take.

Despite all this chaos, Petersen is not ready to divorce it until the end of free trade. “Most likely, this is not permanent,” he said. “I spoke to a member of the cabinet … who told me that the liberation day will be the beginning and not the end of the operation.”

He said he encouraged that some countries were responding, even before the Trump administration maneuver. “Vietnam and Israel came to the table and spent all duties on American goods this week,” Petsen.

This may provide a path forward: quiet negotiations, mutual deals, and a universal supply chain. Meanwhile, Petersen and his team answer phones, feeding on the storm, breaking the seminar platforms online to keep the supply chain – and to maintain Freakouts.

You can see this full interview – Petersen also talks about artificial intelligence and why the founder has embraced – below.