Manufacturing

Framing

For US-headquartered industrial manufacturers, the trade environment of 2026 is qualitatively different from the one most internal supply chain teams were structured around. Section 301 expansions, CHIPS-era reshoring, the IRA-aligned domestic content rules, and the Section 232 reviews on metals are not a single policy regime; they are a layered overlay that interacts with existing FTA sourcing, USMCA rules of origin, and the antidumping order book.

Internal trade compliance teams are usually staffed for tariff classification and FTA qualification, not for the kind of HS6-level pass-through, scenario, and supplier-restructuring math that operating committees increasingly need. This consultancy provides that math, with the BACI panel, WITS tariff lines, and CEPII gravity work behind every claim.

Engagements range from one-off tariff scenario memos for the CFO to multi-quarter supplier-restructuring engagements that sit alongside the operations and procurement teams.

Decisions we inform

• Quantifying tariff pass-through and demand elasticity for a product line under named scenarios.
• Restructuring a supplier base across Vietnam, Mexico, India, and Eastern Europe under decoupling.
• Building defensible Section 232 exclusion or rebuttal documentation.
• Mapping IRA domestic content and Section 48D eligibility against existing supplier mix.
• Sizing exposure to specific antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings.
• Briefing the board on scenario-conditional input cost forecasts.

Named offerings

Sample questions

• We import 30 percent of components from China across HS 8504 and HS 8536. What does the pass-through math look like if Section 301 List 4A expands?
• Where in our supplier base can we realistically substitute Vietnam-origin assembly for China-origin assembly within 18 months?
• Our customer is asking for IRA-eligible domestic content documentation. Walk us through what the audit looks like.
• An AD investigation just opened on aluminum extrusions from Mexico. What is our defensible exposure number and what does the surrogate-value math suggest?
• Build us a quarterly trade brief on tariff and policy deltas in our HS basket so the operations team is not surprised.