Pegatron, one of Apple’s main Taiwanese suppliers, is warning that US stores will see empty shelves as early as two months in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs.

Pegatron’s position in the electronics supply chain puts it in a unique position to offer insights into the effect tariffs will have on the US economy, particularly in the electronics space. The company chairman, T.H. Tung, told that American shoppers may be in for a surprise in the near future.

“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,” Tung said.

Tung also shot down the idea that tariffs would magically lead to an overnight resurgence of American manufacturing, poi❀nting the logistical issues with building new factories and migrating entire industries to another country overnight.

“Just because Trump raises tariffs doesn’t mean the rest of the world will do the same. Taiwanese contract manufacturers are sticking to their overseas plans,” he explained.

“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,” he added.

Tung’s warning is very much inline with what others have said about manufacturing and the supply chain. In most cases, complex products like electronics rely on an entire ecosystem of related products and manufacturing services.

Places like China, Taiwan, India, and Vietnam have become the go-to place for electronics manufacturing specifically because they have the infrastructure and supply chain ecosystem to support the manufacture of complex devices. In contrast, just because a company like Intel or TSMC makes semiconductors in the US doesn’t mean there is readily accessible, domestic access to all the other components necessary to build a computer, phone, or tablet, whereas overseas there🐬 is.

If Tung is correct—anﷺd he probably is—Americans may be poised to return to pandemic-like shortages in stores.