ISM-Twin Cities, Inc.

Tariffs in 2026: Current State, Challenges, Effective Mitigation, and Refunds

As we enter the last half of 2026, tariffs remain one of the most significant challenges facing nearly every company. Procurement teams continue working diligently to secure appropriate refunds and mitigate these impacts while developing long term strategies to navigate an ever-evolving trade landscape.

We are pleased to announce that Stephanie Holloway, Director of Customs Operations at Expeditors, will again be our featured speaker at the August meeting. Stephanie brings extensive knowledge and proven experience in this area. Below is an outline of the topics she will cover:

Presentation Outline

•        Trade Environment: What’s stable vs. shifting

•        Enforcement & Risk: How CBP is evaluating importers

•        IEEPA Refunds: Where things stand and what to watch

•        Duty & Strategy: What’s practical vs. theoretical

•        Operating Model: How to structure compliance effectively

•        Q&A session

If your company has, or will have, any exposure to tariffs (That’s probably all of us!), you will not want to miss this session.

Procurement leaders are under pressure to do more than manage spend—they’re expected to drive measurable business value. This member-only webinar explores how AI-native cost intelligence is reshaping procurement into a strategic profit lever.

Join Gautam Pasari, Founder and CEO of True ValueHub, a 2025 ISM Supply Chain Trailblazer winner, for a focused discussion and case study on how organizations can move upstream in the cost lifecycle, increase transparency across global supply networks, and accelerate sourcing decisions without compromising rigor. You’ll gain practical insight into how AI is enabling faster, more informed collaboration across engineering, sourcing, and supplier ecosystems.

What you’ll learn:

• Why early-stage cost intelligence matters
  Understand how influencing the first 70–80% of cost during design can unlock greater savings and reduce downstream trade-offs.
• How to build transparency and tariff resilience
  See how breaking costs into clear drivers—materials, manufacturing, logistics, and carbon—creates a shared understanding with suppliers and strengthens your ability to model and respond to tariffs and trade shifts.
• How AI is accelerating sourcing cycles
  Explore how AI-enabled workflows can compress RFQ timelines from months to days, enabling real-time collaboration and more strategic decision-making.

Learning Objectives

• Identify how early-stage cost intelligence influences 70–80% of total product cost and apply this insight to improve design-phase decision-making.
• Evaluate cost drivers across materials, manufacturing, logistics, and carbon to improve transparency, strengthen supplier alignment, and model the impact of tariffs and trade changes.
• Apply AI-enabled approaches to accelerate RFQ and sourcing processes, reducing cycle times and enabling more effective real-time collaboration.

How to Strategically Prepare for any Negotiation is a one-day, hands-on, interactive course on how to plan and prepare for any negotiation in the buyer/seller arena. Taught from the perspective of the buyer in a business setting, the skills are easily transferable to interpersonal situations as well.

Topics covered include:

•        Establishing the goals of the negotiation

•        Identifying ALL of the negotiable items and ranking them in order of priority

•        The negotiating “Grid”: the roadmap to optimum results

•        A five-step approach to building a business case to support the goals and the Grid

•        Practical rehearsal procedures and critique forms

•        The critical opening minutes of a negotiation

These topics and other practical principles are taught in this one-day workshop. In addition to the classroom presentations, participants will work in small groups with a dynamic case study. They will need to determine the goals of an upcoming negotiation, create planning grids and complete worksheets to achieve the goals – and finally, rehearse the presentation of their case. Large group and small group work will be led by a professional trainer from Benedict Negotiating.

Who Should Attend?

1.      Anyone in purchasing who negotiates with suppliers. This workshop will be helpful for Sourcing and Procurement people of all levels of experience.

2.      Support people – This is an excellent opportunity for support people from Engineering, Operations, Program Management, Finance, etc. to understand their important role in the negotiating process (it does not teach them how to negotiate, it teaches them how to professionally prepare for the negotiation – and a context for their role on the team).

3.      Negotiating teams who are preparing for a specific negotiation.

Location
Daikin Applied Headquarters
Maple/Oak Conf. Room
3033 Campus Drive
Plymouth, MN 55441