President Donald Trump believes tariffs on imported goods will inspire manufacturers to move factories back to the United States. But the Trump tariff plan -- unveiled April 2, 2025 -- may also trigger rising prices and supply chain challenges for businesses and U.S. consumers, critics allege.
One day after Trump unveiled his tariff plan, U.S. financial markets on April 3, 2025 experienced their steepest decline since March 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported. Moreover, financial markets worldwide continued their sharp declines through April 7, 2025.
In some rare cases, there could be some potential winners in the sustainable IT services market. For instance, U.S. businesses and IT service providers could embrace IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) and circular economy strategies to extend hardware lifecycles and avoid some tariff-inflated product refreshes.
Moreover, U.S. tariffs could force businesses to reevaluate and fine-tune their supply chains. In some cases, the supply chain updates could require third-party IT consultants and specialized management consultants.
Still, the overall financial market news has been mostly negative since President Trump unveiled his tariff plan. Here's the associated timeline so far. Check back regularly for updates.
Trump Tariffs: Business and Sustainability Implications in 2025
April 7 - Energy Transition Winners and Losers: Trump tariffs could impact the energy transition in multiple ways. For instance, solar and onshore wind might fair better in the U.S. relative to other sectors. But the battery and associated energy storage boom for the U.S. grid could face new financial pressures, since most materials in U.S.-made batteries are imported. (Source: Bloomberg)
April 7 - United Kingdom & EV Sales: The UK government is relaxing electric vehicle (EV) sales targets to help the car industry in the face of trade tariffs from the US. (Source: BBC)
April 7 - Worldwide Financial Markets Decline: Financial markets across the globe continued to decline amid tariff concerns. Trump continues to insist that long-term business gains will ultimately overshadow the short-term economic pain. Still, some financial markets began to stabilize by the end of the trading day.
April 4 - China Responds: China lashed back at President Trump’s tariffs, applying 34% levies on all imported goods from the United States. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)
April 3 - A Solar Winner?: First Solar may be the only big winner among renewable energy companies. (Source: HeatMap)
April 3 - Solar Losers: Tariffs on Southeast Asia threaten an already battered solar panel industry and its exports to the world’s largest economy, while also driving up the cost of renewable projects in the United States (Source: Bloomberg).
April 3 - European Union and Green Rules: Amid U.S. tariffs, Italy will ask the European Union to immediately suspend EU green rules. (Source: Reuters).
March 27 - Clean Technology Challenges: Trump tariffs are expected to disrupt the global trade in clean technologies, from electric cars to the materials used to build wind turbines. And as clean technology becomes more expensive to manufacture in the United States, other nations – particularly China – are likely to step up to fill in any gaps. (Source: CarbonBrief)
February 11 - Pressure on Asia: Trump’s tariff measures may slow the adoption and expansion of carbon markets in the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for three-fifths of global emissions and has been a key driver of growth in trading. (Source: Bloomberg)
Keep checking back for timeline updates.
