The shipping companies have nothing to gain and plenty to lose by delaying arrival. They don’t care what happens to the cargo after it’s unloaded. That’s the importer and their broker’s problem.
And… now no tariff on electronics…
But We promise, there will be tariffs on electronics from everywhere in the world. Coming soon. We promise. Meanwhile, I guess the only thing the Hobby Lobby guy can do is pray.
It’s like Lucy with the football.
But yeah - the container arrives in the port. Customs won’t release it until the duty is paid. So if the customer has not paid for the shipment or the goods, they can back off and let it sit, the seller can either pay or have it sent back (Can you “un-deliver” something once it arrives in port or is it irreverisibly in country?) or let it be seized.
If the buyer has already paid for it (usually the case, from what I’m reading) then I guess their choices are pay the duty or let it sit and be seized by customs.
I wonder if a third option is to quickly arrange to ship it onward to Canada or Mexico, etc. since I think transshipped goods don’t get tariffed. Find a buyer in Canada. Pay minimal Canadian tariffs.
But as many non-MAGA have been pointing out for the last few months, a tariff is essentially a sales tax on imported goods. The end consumer pays one way or another unless the manufacturer agrees to lower their price.
Even if this policy is continued (it seems like it is being walked back (for a change)), it’s not “Electronics.” It’s a very narrow definition - Electronics that go into Cell phones and Computers. So, it doesn’t help me at all.
The exemption is not for electronics that go into cell phones and computers; it’s only for finished cell phones and computers (and semiconductors and a couple of other specific items). If you import intermediat goods that are used in the manufacture of cell phones or computers — batteries, say, or screens — those are fully tariffed. The policy, clearly, is to discourage manufacturing and assembly in the US.
The importer will pay Demurrage fees , which are a fee for leaving the container at the port for longer than allowed. I don’t think the fees are outrageous in the US it can be several hundred bucks per container per day, could be escalating rates , but in Brazil we paid 6 figures for 30 containers for one day over due to a serial number snafu on one item out of 1000.
If you abandon I think it is the ports issue to resolve with the shipper named on the bill of lading, not customs, they only care about stuff crossing the boarder , and a container left at dock hasn’t crossed the boarder. The shipper / freight forwarded can auction off the contents to clear port fees and their own costs.
$250 a day at the Port of Long Beach, the last time I had a container stalled by paperwork about ten years ago. If I’m not paying the tariff, I’m sure as Hell not going to pay any demurrage fees. The container yard and Customs can fight over who gets to auction off the contents.
The freight forwarder or whoever you used to bring the goods in can still come after you in civil court for costs incurred such as shipping goods back to seller, legal fees so just abandoning the goods won’t always help .
It also depends what the conditions of carriage were . It also depends how the payments to us customs were set up. For companies that regularly import lots of stuff you have a surety bond with the gov. The freight forwarder tells customs how much duty base on HTS codes, customs takes that money from the bond and then the company need to pay back to the bond to keep it at the agreed levels . So it’s possible the goods can just turn up and the extra duty paid. ( not saying this is your case , just providing some details on how the mechanics of duty payments work in some cases)
I am sure you know this , but for others Incoterms define who pays what when it comes to shipping , insurance , customs etc and always good to know what terms you bought things on, but also shows who is responsible for what. this is probably one of the most downloaded charts in the last few weeks !
The current 250% tariffs are doing an excellent job at that.
I use a tablet for taking notes at work. Bought one a couple of months ago. And it had an accident yesterday. Need a new one. Price jumped from $500 to $700. Thanks for saving me so much money dumb ass Donald.