

Tariff ruling sends CEOs back to company war rooms
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For a few minutes after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s signature tariffs Friday, Ethan Allen Chief Executive Farooq Kathwari felt a jolt of relief. Then a jumble of emails from colleagues began pouring in.
“This is good news for us," a leader in the furniture maker’s Mexico operations wrote. It’s too early to know what this means, the head of merchandising emailed minutes later. The executive followed up soon after: With no guidance from the court on refunds, she said, “businesses must continue to pay." Now that the Supreme Court has resolved one question about the Trump tariffs, it has left U.S.
business leaders awash in a flood of others: Are tariff refunds any closer to reality? Will the possibility of new tariffs under a different legal authority prove costlier? And how to proceed without ruffling the Trump administration—which has staked its economic agenda on tariffs—or customers seeking price breaks? Many company bosses say they are now spending the weekend digesting legal briefs and the president’s response to game out what comes next. Since the ruling, Trump has announced a new global tariff of 15% under a different legal authority, arguing the levies are necessary to address large trade and balance-of-payments deficits. “We’ll try to understand it much better," Kathwari said of the days ahead.
“It’s a bit complicated." Mark Mintman, chief financial officer for Kids2, an Atlanta-based manufacturer of baby products and toys, learned of the ruling on vacation in Florida from a string of text messages. Since he was away, he entered the 170-page ruling into ChatGPT for a quick summary, he said. “My emotional response is muted," said Mintman, given all of the
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