President Donald Trump told a rally in Vandalia, Ohio on Saturday that companies from South Korea, China, Japan and Canada could face duties of 150 to 300 percent unless they build US manufacturing operations within roughly 18 months. For softgoods sourcing executives, the threat extends an already volatile tariff environment that has hit more than $27.6 billion in US-Canada bilateral trade, including textile and apparel exports, as of early September.

"We give them a little window of about a year and a half so they can build their plant here," Trump said at the event for Republican Senator Jon Husted and gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy. "If they don't do that, we charge them a tariff of 150, 200, 250, 300 percent."

He also framed the policy as a response to long-standing foreign barriers. "Countries around the world, including China, Japan, Korea and Canada, have used tariffs against the United States for a long time," the president said.

No implementing order accompanied the remarks. Sourcing teams should treat the 150-300 percent range as a negotiating signal rather than a scheduled tariff line — but one that follows a pattern of threats that have converted into actual duties.

What is the status of the South Korea deal?

The threat against Seoul lands amid stalled implementation of its 2025 commitment to invest $350 billion in the US — $200 billion in unspecified "commercially reasonable" strategic investments and $150 billion for shipbuilding. In exchange, Washington cut Seoul's "reciprocal" tariff rate from 25 percent to 15 percent last July.

South Korea vowed in October to channel $200 billion of the total into US projects in installments of up to $20 billion annually. Talks have since hit an impasse over how revenue and losses from unprofitable projects would be distributed, with President Lee Jae Myung signalling a rocky negotiation process.

Last week the administration offered Seoul a stake in Alaska LNG, an 800-mile pipeline. South Korean representatives said they were still assessing the opportunity when Trump announced the country had bought in. "I didn't jump the gun," Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that if South Korea failed to move forward, he would "charge them more." In January he threatened to restore 25 percent duties on Korean lumber, cars and prescription drugs if the legislature does not ratify the October framework.

How exposed is the North American supply chain?

Ohio, the rally's host state, exports more than $2 billion in machinery and metals to Canada each year — goods now subject to steep new duties. Tit-for-tat measures between the two trading partners covered more than $27.6 billion in bilateral trade as of early September, including US textile and apparel exports. Last week Washington banned $1 billion in Canadian products outright, spanning certain alcohols, motorcycles and dairy.

At the G20 Trade Ministerial in Milwaukee over the weekend, US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer played down the prospects of a thaw: "The reality is there are a handful of outstanding issues that are quite difficult to resolve."

China, by contrast, appears insulated for now. Trump is unlikely to disturb the Busan Agreement, the trade framework brokered with Xi Jinping last fall, which was recently extended by two months.

Where does India's trade deal stand?

India went unmentioned at the rally, yet it remains the major sourcing country most exposed to uncertainty. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in late September that the negotiated trade agreement with the US was nearly "done and dusted." That optimism has since soured: another official last week called US trade policy "self-centered" and harmful to the Global South.

On Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman confirmed major setbacks. The framework has "been a hard and very vigorously negotiated" one, she said, and winning concessions from either side at this stage would be "very, very difficult," according to Reuters.

What should sourcing desks do now?

The Ohio remarks do not change any tariff schedule today. They do, however, signal that investment commitments — not just trade balances — are becoming the currency of tariff relief, as the Korea precedent shows. Teams sourcing from Korea, Canada or India should stress-test landed-cost scenarios against renewed duty escalation, and treat ratification of the October Korea framework as the next hard trigger to monitor.