Other Dunedin business leaders agree the tariffs are unlikely to affect them significantly, but say it is still too early to gauge the full impact.
Mr Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs on the country’s trading partners yesterday, including a baseline 10% tariff on several nations, New Zealand among them.
Displayed on a chart claiming to show the tariffs charged by other countries against the US, New Zealand was listed as having instigated a 20% rate against the country — an allegation that has since been disputed by Trade Minister Todd McClay and Labour trade spokesman Damien O’Connor.
Toko Farms owner and operator Simon Davies said the tariffs were "frustrating", but were not as bad as they could have been.
"Given that our products and the outlook for our products is pretty positive, I’m not actually sure that it will make a lot of difference to me at the farm gate."
He believed some red meats products such as lamb and beef — both "very valuable markets" in the US — would be the only products of his that could be affected, but not to any significant degree.
"If you ask me on a scale of priorities of things I’m most concerned about, tariffs in the US market is well down the list."
He was "far more concerned" about increases on his standing charges for utilities, and a lack of value-added strategies for adult sheep meat, Mr Davies.
Scott Technology chief executive Mike Christman said we were "living in a world of fog at the moment".
He was "very disappointed" by the broad direction the tariffs signalled for global trade.
"From a global economic perspective, it brings increased protectionism, which is inevitably going to create inefficiencies and uncertainties in those international markets."
It was "too early to say" what the overall impact would be, but the direct implications on the company were expected to be limited.
Founded in Dunedin, Scott Technology is a global automation and robotics solutions provider.
North America was a fairly small part of its portfolio and the company had the ability to move some of its manufacturing around the world, if needed, Mr Christman said.
It could also be impacted if retaliatory tariffs were put on products the company manufactured in the US and exported to other countries.
But it had mitigation measures in place, and it was no cause for worry at this stage.
"It will inevitably have a global ripple, which is not going to be good for anybody.
"There are no winners in this situation."
City Forests chief executive Grant Dodson said the announcement was not unexpected, but still disappointing.
"I can’t recall a period where there’s been such a rapid blanket move on a global scale from the world’s biggest economy."
The forestry industry exported primarily to Korea, China and India, and there were no direct log exports to the US, Mr Dodson said.
But the wood processing industry did export to the US and could be impacted by the tariffs.
He did not see an immediate direct threat to forest owners, and the impact on City Forests would have more to do with fluctuations in the value of the NZ dollar rather than the tariffs themselves.
