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.

President Donald Trump declared that if China doesn't withdraw its 34% retaliatory tariff hike, "above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

President Donald Trump, from his home in South Florida, posted on social media throughout the day about the global and economic reactions to the tariffs. After the strong job growth numbers from March were released, he wrote, "GREAT JOB NUMBERS, FAR BETTER THAN EXPECTED. IT’S ALREADY WORKING. HANG TOUGH, WE CAN’T LOSE!!!"

China retaliated against President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs with duties of 34% on all U.S. goods, along with new export restrictions on U.S. companies and rare earth metals.

Republicans are not exactly turning against the dramatic tariff actions President Donald Trump is taking, but some are expressing hope that the reciprocal tariffs will be temporary cudgels to liberalize trade, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, acknowledged that the free trade advocates in the Republican Party may not be right about that being where this is heading.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a lawsuit on behalf of paper importer Emily Ley Paper, doing business as Simplified, on April 3 challenging President Donald Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose 20% tariffs on all goods from China. Filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Simplified laid out three constitutional and statutory claims against the use of IEEPA to impose tariffs and one claim that the tariffs violate the Administrative Procedure Act for unlawfully modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (Emily Ley Paper, doing business as Simplified v. Donald J. Trump, N.D. Fla. # 3:25-00464).

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.

The White House released a pre-publication copy of President Donald Trump’s executive order on reciprocal tariffs, with Annex III to the order detailing Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings that will be used for the tariffs that take effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 5 and on April 9.

President Donald Trump, on his flight to Florida on April 3, told reporters on the plane that "we put ourselves in the driver's seat" with the global tariff announcements, and now, "every country is calling us."

Multiple countries this week objected to President Donald Trump’s April 2 announcement of new reciprocal tariffs against trading partners (see 2504020072), saying they either plan to retaliate or are assessing how to respond.