Insights

With the EU’s deforestation laws coming online this month, business leaders will need to ensure that commodities in their supply chains do not contribute to deforestation. The broad range of commodities scoped into the regulation include wood, rubber, palm oil, soy, beef, cattle, and/or cacao. In advancing this regulation, the EU aims to minimize its contributions to global deforestation and, in turn, reduce its impact on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss. Companies will have to quickly adapt their commercial operations to ensure compliance and think strategically to gain a competitive edge in doing so.

With an “America First” philosophy, President Trump will bring structural shifts to U.S. domestic economy and America’s approach to trade, foreign policy, and investment flows. As Trump takes office today, he and his team will push aggressively. Business will feel immediate pressure and have to navigate peripheral clatter . This will be especially true for businesses that are resource- and knowledge-intensive with global operations. Expect greater deregulation, sweeping tax reform, enhanced competition with China, and a reconfiguration of global supply chains due to broad tariffs, levies, duties, and import/export bans. Business leaders will have to ensure readiness to absorb major policy shocks and redirects in Q1 and well beyond.

Uncontrolled wildfires continue to menace and destroy communities in Los Angeles under a rare red flag warning. Even with the deadly fires still raging across a large swath of Southern California, the estimated damages have made the fires the region’s worst natural disaster in decades. The issues mount – lack of water, cascading electrical outages, un-insurability, privatization of first responder support, finger pointing between local, state, and federal levels. With all of this in mind, the LA fires demonstrate a new vulnerability for Americans. Residents and business leaders alike must call into question closely held assumptions on normalcy in one of the biggest and most prosperous U.S. cities

Central to the health of the domestic and global economy, business executives have a responsibility to understand the dynamic energy landscape both in the U.S. and globally. 2025 will bring tensions of oversupply, price increases, deregulation, and restructured incentives for renewables. This will lay on top of an already complex web of geopolitical conflict, tariffs, trade restrictions, export bans, and more. With the climate crisis intensifying, an increased focus for all corporates should be on decarbonization, energy security, and system resilience. Perhaps most succinctly put, the headline on energy in 2025 is that there is no easy headline.

With the U.S.-China trade simmering as Trump begins his second term, Apple will be vulnerable to the proposed China tariffs and export restrictions of critical minerals. Since Apple makes majority of its +100 products in China, it must deflect what otherwise would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. Although Apple has shifted some production to India with the iPhone 15 (2022), Apple has yet to start fabrication in the U.S. With Trump proposing a 60% tariff on goods imported from China and a 20% levy on things made elsewhere, Apple will have to use every lever to contain costs, sustain demand, secure mineral inputs, and gain policy exemption. So, with so much at-stake, what will Apple do?

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for his second term, industrial and materials companies will face significant challenges and opportunities stemming from his aggressive trade policies. Corporate executives must anticipate potential changes to tariffs and trade strategies and plan accordingly to navigate these shifts.