Countdown to Tariffs Leaves US Importers Craving the Fine Print

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What Trump has proposed for Aug. 1 is potentially far more complex than that — a patchwork consisting of new levies for nations and specific ones for certain goods like autos, steel and copper, as well as relief for goods under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The customs software that went from just a few lines in Trump’s first term are getting retooled overnight to handle dozens of tariff codes.

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‘Fully Equipped’

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CBP says it’s ready to enforce Trump’s tariffs despite the ticking clock.

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“Serving on America’s frontline, CBP strictly enforces all laws and Presidential directives to secure our economic sovereignty,” CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham said Wednesday. “CBP is fully equipped and ready to implement and enforce the President’s tariffs using all our legal authorities for tariff enforcement and revenue collection.”

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At the same time, CBP is policing businesses more aggressively to ensure they classify their goods correctly, pay the appropriate amount in taxes and provide details on the country of origin, potentially right down to the component. Failure to comply can result in even greater fees and penalties.

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“We’re correcting customs every day on scenarios where they mistakenly requesting additional duty when it should be due. And I can’t blame them. Their job has gotten more complicated too,” Jansen said.

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Jose Gonzalez, president of the Washington-based National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Inc., said the industry expects to get specific guidance from CBP on Thursday, while some are also “hoping for an extension.”

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“We have a feeling they’ll be ready – we just want to make sure they’re accurately ready,” Gonzalez said. “Sometimes they leave out details because of the fact that it’s a live update.”

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CBP has had to work out the details on the fly before.

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Mollie Sitkowski, a Chicago-based trade compliance partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, has a client who owes several million dollars from taking an exemption they didn’t know they were taking because customs software accepted entries it wasn’t supposed to. 

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“Customs didn’t keep up with it, the broker didn’t keep up with it and the importer didn’t even know it was happening,” she said. “Then at the end of May, customs comes back and says ‘you owe this money.’” 

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A similar situation is playing out with the aluminum and steel tariffs, which went live before the details on derivatives and components were hashed out.

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Importers are doing their best to hedge against the turmoil, according to Eytan Buchman, chief marketing officer at Freightos Group, which runs a cargo booking platform. “Plenty are breaking loads into pallet‑sized or airfreight moves instead of full containers to dodge the cash‑crunch of one big customs bill,” he said.

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Importers must show they took “reasonable care” to interpret the tariff rates and apply them to their shipments. Tom Gould, CEO of Tom Gould Customs Consulting Inc. in Seattle, said “importers are struggling more today with understanding the rules than they are with paying the tariffs.”

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Unpredictability

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Trump’s unpredictability makes it tough to plan. 

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“I type an email to a client with a certain percentage and it makes me look like an idiot because before they’ve even read it, he’s said something else,” said Paul Diedrich, director of trade services at Ardent Global Logistics, whose clients are mostly small- and medium-sized business.