The chairman of Taiwan-based contract manufacturer Pegatron, a major supplier to Apple and Dell, has said the company would be continuing with its plans to expand operations in locations such as Southeast Asia and Mexico in spite of tariff uncertainty.

“Taiwanese contract manufacturers are sticking to their overseas plans,” Pegatron chair T.H. Tung told Reuters at an awards event.

“We won’t immediately adjust our long-term plans just because of two or three months of tariff changes. Manufacturing bases require long-term planning.”

Empty shelves

Tung added that countries outside the US will not necessarily follow White House moves to impose tariffs.

Like competitors including Foxconn, Pegatron has been diversifying manufacturing operations outside of China over the past few years in response to geopolitical uncertainties.

He said manufacturing locations are not decided by contract manufacturers themselves, but were negotiated with customers.

Echoing other reports, Tung suggested the logistical chaos triggered by fluctuating White House tariff orders could lead to “empty shelves” in the US as importers wait for clarity.

“Within two months, shelves in the United States… might resemble those in third-world countries, where people visit department stores and markets only to find empty shelves, all because everyone is waiting and seeing,” he said.

Earlier this month the White House paused some tariffs on countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and India, where Pegatron has operations, but Tung said US importers might continue to wait to place orders if they believe a separate 10 percent tariff might be repealed.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during an interview with Fox News on Monday that he was not concerned “at present” about reports of empty shelves due to tariffs.

Higher costs

Earlier this month Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said the company is still waiting to see how Trump’s tariffs “play out”, but that its network third-party sellers may “pass that cost on” to consumers.

Amazon’s huge third-party marketplace is made up of millions of sellers, many of which are based in China or source their products from that country.

Third-party sellers are estimated to account for about 60 percent of all products sold on Amazon’s website.

Jassy said Amazon has done some “strategic forward inventory buys” and looked to renegotiate terms on some purchase orders in an effort to keep prices low.

Some third-party sellers that are based in or source from China are planning to forego participation in Amazon’s Prime Day event this July due to losses they would incur by selling discounted products, Reuters reported this week.