So has all this on-again off-again flapping about by Trump actually changed any tariffs? Have there been millions of dollars of taxes actually charged in imports that have arrived at the ports in the time it takes Trump to change his mind?
What is the lead time from the POTUS saying “I’m gonna levy a tariff on country” to importers actually being taxed (and signing a check to the US government) for the goods they receive (or pay for?) from that country? Does it matter that the tariff was lower when the goods were dispatched from the importing country?
What’s the process of actual imposing a tariff (I assume just having the POTUS say they are gonna charge China a bazzilion percent tariff is not good enough). Assuming Trump’s lackeys have actually started that process correctly, how long does it take?
Putting this in FQ as hoping for a factual answer about tarrifs generally not a discussion of Trump and these specific tarrifs, beyond the factual answer to whether they have actually been levied.
From my experience, nobody knows.
Our freight forwarder has no idea what the current tariffs are. There’s no documentation issued, and I would guess that a “xit” or a “twuh” doesn’t actually count.
Your freight forwarder might not know but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t written down somewhere. Hell the whole reason writing and numbers were invented was to record taxation rates for goods
It gets applied at the port of entry. Goods bound to the US now will get the tariff applied at the port. China can keep sending things at no cost to them. If the American consumer chooses to pay the higher price then China will keep sending. If their goods pile up due to no buyers they will stop. This is when China loses, they lose potential sales
But the real loser is the American consumer, who now either pays higher prices or has fewer choices. Americans love having cheaper alternatives.
China isn’t “sending” anything!
All the goods that are in the pipeline have been bought by American companies, and they will be the ones who eat the extra costs.
Cite: Me (who is trying to figure out how to handle the extra $16K tax on a current order, placed before the tariffs where raised).
The US Government’s Harmonized Tariff Schedule is current as of just a day or two ago [NB: be careful what you click on. Some links will open BIG PDFs]:
Generally, IIRC, the tariff charged is the tariff that is in effect when the goods enter the US, and not when they were shipped from the origin country, so an increased tariff while the goods are in transit will result in an increased tariff being charged on arrival to a US Port of Entry.
Anything that cleared Customs prior to a tariff change, IIRC, is not subject to the new tariff.
I’m in the same boat. The broker will just pay whatever bill US Customs hands them at the time it hits the beach and present me with a bill for 3, 4, 10 times what I planned for.
So without crashing my browser by looking myself Has that document changed based on Trump’s prognostications? How often have they reissued it? Did they make a new one every time Trump hiked or cancelled a tariff? If not what’s involved in actually turning one of Trump’s pronouncements into a line iren in that document?
I think the best answer I can give you is from that website:
Under “NOTICES” on the home page:
Executive Order “Modifying Reciprocal Tariff Rates to Reflect Trading Partner Retaliation and Alignment” of April 9, 2025, increases the rate of additional duties for the People’s Republic of China from 84% to 125% and suspends the country-specific rates of duty, except for 9903.01.63, until July 9, 2025.
When you search for 9903.01.63, you get:
Except for goods loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in transit on the final mode of transit before 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on April 9, 2025, except for products described in headings 9903.01.28-9903.01.33, and except as provided for in heading 9903.01.34, articles the product of China, including Hong Kong and Macau, as provided for in subdivision (v) of U.S. note 2 to this subchapter
Point is: I think they’re all over this right now.
Interesting is that legal binding? I would have thought the point of having a document like that is it servers as the “ground truth” for what tarrifs are due at any given time. Would you really be liable if you went with what was in the tariff schedule not by notes on the website? Also are the other tarrifs that were brought in earlier in the schedule document? Even the ones that were later suspended?
I dunno about that, I suspect that note is on the webpage as none of the incompetent schmucks in the Trump know how to the update the schedule (and they’ve sacked everyone that does)
I used to work for an import company and something like this kills you. For larger systems, we wouldn’t have stock, but would only order from the manufacturer after getting a purchase order from a customer.
The price is set based on the manufacturer’s price, freight, handling, taxes and tariffs, etc. (Not to mention currency issues; in our industry, we were purchasing in dollars and selling in yen.)
In most businesses, the importer doesn’t break out costs to the customer, so if there changes in any of the charges, the importer has to eat the cost. If you have accepted a purchase order, basically, you have a legal obligation to deliver a product at the agreed price.
I have no idea what we would have done if this had happened to us.
Peter Eavis of NYT, about 11:20AM Eastern Time today:
In a sign that the federal government’s technology is struggling to keep up with President Trump’s tariffs, Customs and Border Protection acknowledged on Friday that importers had not been able to submit a tariff on certain goods. The glitch appeared to be preventing importers from applying a lower tariff rate on goods that were in transit to the United States before some of Mr. Trump’s tariffs took effect. Customs and Border Protection said it was releasing the goods and allowing importers to submit their customs duties later.
Karen Weiss of NYT, about 1:20PM ET:
Hobby Lobby, the crafting retailer, told vendors that it was delaying shipments from China as a result of the escalating trade war, according to correspondence dated yesterday and viewed by The New York Times. The retailer told vendors that the back-and-forth tariffs resulted in “a rapidly shifting and unpredictable landscape” and that it hoped diplomacy between the U.S. and China “will yield a more stable and balanced outcome.” As a result, the email said, it was delaying shipments, but not cancelling orders, and would review its plans weekly. Hobby Lobby did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
When you buy something, you like to know how much it will cost you.
I wonder what happens when the port yards are cluttered with so many uncleared (unpaid duties) containers that the ports become inoperable. I guess Customs will just seize the contents and auction them off…probably to the original importer…for less than the actual tariff.
Last year the U.S. imported about $400 billion worth of goods from China. Round it off to about $1 billion a day. Since the 100% percent tariffs went into effect on April 9th (?) the U.S. Treasury could have collected several billion dollars in tariff revenue. But I wonder if ships are actually being told to wait before docking, as the tariff seems to change from day to day.
