Flexport CEO Breaks Down the Global Impact of Trump’s New Tariffs
EP 133 of The Logan Bartlett Show: For people building companies - from the people who’ve done it.
As tariff drama continues to heat up, Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport (one of the hottest freight forwarders in the world) came on the show to unpack the impact.
Click here to view the episode transcript | Watch on Youtube | Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
✉️ Episode Memo
➡️ The biggest challenge with Trump’s new tariffs? Planning.
Now that tariffs have been imposed on Canada and Mexico, there’s hardly any country where businesses can feel truly safe—tariffs could hit anywhere, making long-term planning nearly impossible today. Businesses hit hardest will be those that are too slow or bureaucratic to react as things settle.
➡️ Today, it can be ~20x more expensive to ship from California to Hawaii than to China—which Ryan calls “totally backwards policy.”
A lesson from Asia’s last 50–60 years: successful economies promoted exports, not just protected domestic industries. Coddling industries and blocking exports makes us overly reliant on U.S. consumers and undermines efforts to build a globally competitive manufacturing base.
➡️ A change Ryan would make if he was in charge: relax shipping regulations
The U.S. has twice as many navigable rivers as the rest of the world—thanks to the Mississippi River network and other waterways—but we barely use them. Policies that require American-made ships (super expensive) and pricy union fees for loading make river shipping way less competitive than trucking, even though using barges is physically much cheaper and easier.
➡️ Panama Canal conspiracy
The Panama Canal has been operating at 2/3rds capacity for the past couple of years, and the official story blames a drought. However, Ryan suspects the drought is actually a cover-up for engineering failures and embarassment. Ryan’s already tapped a few locals with home weather stations and plans to dig deeper. More conspiracy theories in the full episode!
⭐ Trailer
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