Wakool Weekly News

The first week of August 2025 has blown past every post-pandemic benchmark for supply-chain turmoil. Washington’s new “reciprocal” tariff grid now blankets nearly 70 nations with 10–41 percent duties (Canada is hammered with 35 percent, India jumps to 50 percent, China’s 80 percent threat looms for August 12).

With Washington confirming 1 August as the tariff go-live date—not merely a deadline—the trade chessboard has shifted from bluff to execution. Formal rate letters are already landing (25 % for Japan and Korea), Treasury warns that non-deal partners will see pre-truce levies “boomerang” back, and a surprise U.S.–Vietnam accord shows how frenzied the final bargaining has become.

In the final week of June, global logistics was hit by a triple shock: trans-Pacific spot rates fell more than 20 %, China-Europe trains hit the 110,000-service milestone, and MSC moved to acquire Romania’s Mangalia yard to lock in European shipbuilding capacity. With global port congestion touching 96 % and U.S.–China tariffs frozen at a steep 55 %, the industry now faces a “high-cost, highly diversified” supply-chain era for the rest of 2025.

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