Companies Turn to Foreign-Trade Zones to Shelter From U.S. Tariffs

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

P.M. Edition for May 13. Companies seek to access foreign-trade zones as they navigate rising U.S. tariffs. WSJ news associate Owen Tucker-Smith reports on how the country’s roughly 260 foreign-trade zones allow them to defer tariffs on imported goods and materials, for a while. And the latest consumer-price index showed prices rose 2.3% in the 12 months through April, slowing from a 2.4% rate a month earlier. Economics reporter Chao Deng considers U.S. tariffs’ effects on that price growth. Plus, President Trump announced an end to sanctions on Syria during the first of a four-day trip to the Middle East. The move would give Syria’s new rulers a financial lifeline. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:33.1	U.S. inflation ticked up in April, showing an early hint of the impact of tariffs.
0:38.4	A good way to think about it is this report is a bit like observing sunny weather ahead of a widely anticipated storm where the rainfall remains highly uncertain.
0:49.3	Plus, companies are rushing to access foreign trade zones as refuge from tariff volatility.
0:55.4	And United Health places a new bet on its old CEO who made it a giant after its current chief executive steps down.
1:03.0	It's Tuesday, May 13th.
1:04.9	I'm Alex Oscella for the Wall Street Journal.
1:06.9	This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that
1:11.8	move the world today.
1:16.5	Monthly inflation in the U.S. picked up slightly in April. The Labor Department said
1:21.3	today that the Consumer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% last month,
1:26.8	matching economists' forecasts. Year-over-year inflation cooled to a 0.2% last month, matching economists forecasts.
1:28.8	Year-over-year inflation cooled to a 2.3% increase in April, below what economists had
1:33.8	expected and below March's annual rate. For more, I'm joined by WSJ economics reporter Chow Dang.
1:40.8	Chao, April was a particularly back-and-forth month for Trump's tariff policies. How much do these new
1:46.5	inflation numbers reflect that? Overall, economists couldn't take a lot of comfort in this report
1:52.5	because all this volatility still needs time to be reflected in the data. So in that sense, this report by no means reflects how businesses are
2:06.3	going to react to the tariffs, and that's something that we'll probably see later this summer.
2:12.5	As we've reported in the past, many businesses have tried to hold off so far on passing tariff costs along to customers.
2:19.3	Does that mean we haven't felt the full impact yet of the tariffs?
2:23.5	There were hints of tariff passed through in this report in a few categories exposed to tariffs
	...

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