CHANDLER, Ariz. -- A litany of new tariffs is creating a number of issues that brokers need to be aware of as they interact with their importer clients, including bond insufficiency and a potential increase in CBP requests for information, according to speakers on an April 8 panel at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America’s annual conference.
With the White House announcing this week the end of the de minimis exemption for goods made in China starting next month, the U.S. will need to have the customs and trade infrastructure in place to handle significantly higher volumes of formal and informal entries, said Bernie Hart, vice president of customs for logistics provider Flexport.
A day after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs upon dozens of trading partners, including countries that the U.S. has historically had friendly relations with, customs brokers and importers have numerous questions, such as whether ACE has the ability to verify values accurately and what role drawback might have as companies respond to the tariffs.
Trade facilitation appears to be taking a back seat to trade enforcement, based on recent actions taken by President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency to streamline federal operations, said a trade attorney during a March 26 webinar on tariffs and recent trade actions sponsored by Venable.
As the U.S., Mexico and Canada are poised to renegotiate the free trade agreement known as USMCA among the three countries, expect the U.S. to review the rules of origin and "tighten them" in favor of requiring a higher percentage of North American content, trade attorneys with Miller and Chevalier said on a March 25 webinar sponsored by public accounting firm Forvis Mazars.
CBP has updated its FAQ on Section 232 tariffs for aluminum and steel on its website, addressing certain elements of the tariffs that the trade community has been grappling with, particularly on determining the value of new steel and aluminum derivatives outside of chapters 73 and 76 (see 2503140059.
Project 2025 recommends combining CBP's Office of Trade and Office of Trade Relations with the Office of Field Operations in order to “achieve streamlined operations and increase OT’s capacity and capability by leveraging OFO’s expansive resources,” according to the Project 2025 chapter on its recommendations for DHS.
CBP will very soon release a FAQ on some outstanding issues related to complying with the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives, particularly derivatives outside of chapters 73 and 76 (see 2503140059), according to a CBP official speaking during CBP's bi-weekly ACE trade support call.
Even Flexport's advisors are stumped over how exactly to declare a value for the aluminum or steel content for affected derivative products (see 2503140059), based on comments made during a webinar hosted by the company March 18.
Customs brokers and importers are still grappling with how to comply with the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives that went into effect just after midnight on March 12 (see 2503120054).