Brokers Asking Congress to Mandate 14 Days Before Tariff Changes
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said he has met with customs brokers each of the last three days, and their main ask is no more executive orders changing tariffs that are released on a Friday afternoon or night and take effect on Monday.
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"It just doesn't give them enough time," said Cuellar, who became a licensed customs broker in the early '80s, before being elected to the statehouse in Texas. He has represented a district including his hometown of Laredo in Congress for 20 years. They just want two weeks "so they can do the work more accurately," he said.
"They asked me to see if we could put something to say: 'you gotta have at least a two weeks' notice,' I said, 'But you know how this works, there's a tweet that comes out, and then they gotta implement it.' I don't think we can."
He added, "The only thing we can try to do is: Talk to the White House."
There is no clear way for Congress to direct the administration to stop releasing executive orders that change tariffs over a weekend, short of amending the trade laws the president is using to impose them.
He said brokers also have met with CBP to ask for more time after tariff announcements, and have been told that CBP has to follow what comes down from the White House.
Although Cuellar said the brokers don't like tariffs, they aren't asking him to push for votes on resolutions to end the emergencies that underpin the fentanyl tariffs and the reciprocal tariffs. If those were to pass by veto-proof majorities, they would end all those tariffs.
They also aren't asking him to support a bill that would forbid any hiked tariffs or trade restrictions, whether by terminating a free trade agreement or using Section 232, Section 338 or Section 122, unless Congress approved the measure. (That bill leaves Section 301 delegation in place, the authority used for China tariffs.)
Cuellar said the brokers who are lobbying him told him about asking CBP for guidance on how to calculate the value of the metal in derivative goods subject to Section 232 tariffs.
He said they told him, "Sometimes they ask CBP and [are told]: 'We know as much as you do.'"
So not only do they need to calculate the value of metal purchased to make a good -- which might not have been done by their client -- and not only do they have to do it in a short period of time, but they're not getting guidance on how to do the math, or how to verify the information they're given, he said. "That makes their job very difficult."