Uncertainty, the unknown, unpredictability — whatever you want to call it, Trump's constant twists and turns on tariffs, the war on Ukraine and all other forms of policymaking are wreaking havoc on the global fashion supply chain.

Last week, Trump implemented his 25% tariffs against fashion and textiles from Canada and Mexico amongst other products before delaying them again for another month.

If it feels like déjà-vu that’s because it is as Canada and Mexico were given a period of 30 days to enhance border security measures and address the issues around illegal Fentanyl in early February.

This time, the one-month suspension is for duty-free goods that sit within the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which does include apparel and textiles.

This is good news you could argue, but in the wider scope of how global financial markets work all of this to-ing and fro-ing on tariffs and not knowing what’s going to come next — even in the short-term — increases market volatility and reduces economic growth.

And to put that into perspective the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, shows January 2025 (when US President Trump took office) as having a higher level of global uncertainty than the start of the Covid pandemic (April 2020).

The President of Ethiopia’s Hawassa Industrial Park Investors Association (HIPIA) Hibret Lemma sums it up perfectly. During a recent face-to-face chat in London he told Just Style: “Now US President Donald Trump is in the picture nothing is certain.”

The global fashion supply chain is an intricate web that relies on global trade and two-way partnerships. When it works at its best it has the power to bring multiple countries together and can help economies grow.

Sadly, as Robert P Antoshak, VP of Global Strategic Sourcing at Grey Matter Concepts pointed out to Just Style’s readers recently: If international relations suffer severe collateral damage (as is the case right now) it can become increasingly difficult to resolve once the dust settles.

And it would be easy to assume the biggest unknown facing the fashion supply chain right now is Trump’s unpredictability over tariffs.

But, it goes much further than that.

Trump’s handling of the war in Ukraine is of equal if not greater importance to the wider fashion supply chain as high energy costs throughout Europe and high inflation are all taking their toll on garment manufacturers in every corner of the globe.