Trump trade war pushes firms to consider stockpiling

Stockpiling is the reflex response by firms to the imposition of tariffs, but with the rapidly-changing position of the Trump administration, companies are finding that it isn't so straightforward this time around. Fermob, a French manufacturer of metal garden furniture that sells around 10 percent of its products in the United States, said it began planning for U.S. tariffs once the result of the presidential election became known in November. "In a lot of the electronics space, it's also hard to do, because the technology changes so quickly, you don't want to get stuck with inventory of chipsets or devices that are the prior version," he said.