Latest news with #CBP
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chaotic Tariff Rollout Has US Importers, Customs Agents in Limbo
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump entered office in January pledging to unleash prosperity by raising tariffs and cutting red tape. Six months later, the back-office systems connecting the US and global economies face their toughest test yet against an onslaught of both. The World's Data Center Capital Has Residents Surrounded An Abandoned Art-Deco Landmark in Buffalo Awaits Revival We Should All Be Biking Along the Beach Budapest's Most Historic Site Gets a Controversial Rebuild San Francisco in Talks With Vanderbilt for Downtown Campus Importers, customs brokers and the broader logistics industry are bracing for a deluge of fine print on tariffs before Friday, when Trump has pledged higher country-specific duties amid a number of import taxes targeted at certain products and materials. Hours before the deadline, key details needed to keep goods flowing and the paper trail compliant are unclear: What will dozens of still-unspecified levies be, will they apply to merchandise already in transit, and how and when will some of Trump's recent deals be implemented? 'If there is no formal notification before Aug. 1, does that mean the current rates are being assessed? The April 2 tariff rates? We don't know,' said Cindy Allen, chief executive officer of Trade Force Multiplier LLC, an international trade and customs consulting firm. US Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that enforces tariffs and the nation's trade laws, can't implement anything based on Trump's letters, Truth Social posts or administration fact sheets that have outlined his negotiated deals and unilateral pronouncements. CBP needs a more formal notice, such as an executive order or proclamation. Tariff Tracker: Follow Every Trump Tariff and Its Economic Effect That's paralyzing companies and their customs brokers who face mounting electronic paperwork, using software that hadn't been updated as of early Thursday. 'Around the Clock' After months of trying to keep up with quick-changing rules, the importers-of-record that actually pay tariffs — not US trading partners, as Trump often claims — worry about penalties and surprise bills that can run into the millions of dollars. For many, it's impossible to know where and when to send their next purchase orders, much less plan capital investments. In addition to making customs declarations, brokers now 'are really in the weeds with advising clients in how to comply with the with regulations and changing tariffs, but also looking at strategies on how to reduce the tariffs, mitigate the tariffs, delay the tariffs,' said William Jansen, head of customs brokerage SEKO Logistics. 'It's around the clock.' Once an official decree comes, CBP reprograms its software platform known as ACE — short for Automated Commercial Environment. Big companies typically have direct connections to ACE, while smaller ones often use customs brokerages. If the only update is to various countries' tariff rate, it could be an easy change. 'That's just updating one number with another. That can happen in a few hours,' Allen said. What Trump has proposed for Aug. 1 is potentially far more complex than that — a patchwork consisting of new levies for nations and specific ones for certain goods like autos, steel and copper, as well as relief for goods under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The customs software that went from just a few lines in Trump's first term are getting retooled overnight to handle dozens of tariff codes. 'Fully Equipped' CBP says it's ready to enforce Trump's tariffs despite the ticking clock. 'Serving on America's frontline, CBP strictly enforces all laws and Presidential directives to secure our economic sovereignty,' CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham said Wednesday. 'CBP is fully equipped and ready to implement and enforce the President's tariffs using all our legal authorities for tariff enforcement and revenue collection.' At the same time, CBP is policing businesses more aggressively to ensure they classify their goods correctly, pay the appropriate amount in taxes and provide details on the country of origin, potentially right down to the component. Failure to comply can result in even greater fees and penalties. 'We're correcting customs every day on scenarios where they mistakenly requesting additional duty when it should be due. And I can't blame them. Their job has gotten more complicated too,' Jansen said. Jose Gonzalez, president of the Washington-based National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Inc., said the industry expects to get specific guidance from CBP on Thursday, while some are also 'hoping for an extension.' 'We have a feeling they'll be ready – we just want to make sure they're accurately ready,' Gonzalez said. 'Sometimes they leave out details because of the fact that it's a live update.' CBP has had to work out the details on the fly before. Mollie Sitkowski, a Chicago-based trade compliance partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, has a client who owes several million dollars from taking an exemption they didn't know they were taking because customs software accepted entries it wasn't supposed to. 'Customs didn't keep up with it, the broker didn't keep up with it and the importer didn't even know it was happening,' she said. 'Then at the end of May, customs comes back and says 'you owe this money.'' A similar situation is playing out with the aluminum and steel tariffs, which went live before the details on derivatives and components were hashed out. Importers are doing their best to hedge against the turmoil, according to Eytan Buchman, chief marketing officer at Freightos Group, which runs a cargo booking platform. 'Plenty are breaking loads into pallet‑sized or airfreight moves instead of full containers to dodge the cash‑crunch of one big customs bill,' he said. Importers must show they took 'reasonable care' to interpret the tariff rates and apply them to their shipments. Tom Gould, CEO of Tom Gould Customs Consulting Inc. in Seattle, said 'importers are struggling more today with understanding the rules than they are with paying the tariffs.' Unpredictability Trump's unpredictability makes it tough to plan. 'I type an email to a client with a certain percentage and it makes me look like an idiot because before they've even read it, he's said something else,' said Paul Diedrich, director of trade services at Ardent Global Logistics, whose clients are mostly small- and medium-sized business. Diedrich said he's part of an informal support group with a handful of brokers and trade attorneys that wanted a 'safe place to vent.' US PREVIEW: IEEPA Takedown? Trump's Favored Trade Weapon at Risk Meanwhile, a federal appeals court is holding a hearing Thursday on the legality of a huge swath of tariffs that Trump justified by invoking emergency powers, including the country-by-country rates due out Friday. If those are ultimately ruled illegal, CBP will likely need to issue refunds for all revenue collected under the so-called reciprocal tariffs, though the process for doing so is unclear. —With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Catherine Lucey. Russia Builds a New Web Around Kremlin's Handpicked Super App Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Cage-Free Eggs Are Booming in the US, Despite Cost and Trump's Efforts ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign up for the Yahoo Finance Morning Brief By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Fox News
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Harold Ford Jr. advises sanctuary city officials to cooperate with the Trump admin
'The Five' co-hosts discuss President Donald Trump's response to the shooting of an off-duty CBP agent in New York City.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump revokes de minimis privilege for global e-commerce imports
Not content to wait two years for this month's congressional repeal of the de minimis exemption to take effect, President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that ends the ability of low-value goods to enter the U.S. duty-free and with minimal customs processing on Aug. 29. Trump said suspending the trade privilege for individual parcel shipments was necessary to prevent people from using the system to evade tariffs systematically being imposed on all nations. The President earlier this year eliminated de minimis privileges for small-dollar items shipped from China and Hong Kong. The new policy will force importers to pay the full tariff amount for shipments valued at $800 or less and originating from all countries. The decision is a blow for e-commerce retailers, including mom-and-pop enterprises, that source goods from overseas and ship them directly to online buyers via cross-border parcel networks. International logistics providers and cargo airlines are also expected to lose business. The de minimis exemption, originally designed to reduce the administrative burden on U.S. Customs and Border Protection from collecting tiny amounts of tariffs on individual parcels, was exploited by Chinese online marketplaces and other e-tailers to enable cheap, direct-to-consumer fulfillment without the need of U.S. warehouses. CBP has said the explosion of de minimis shipments has outstripped its ability to check for potential trade violations and smuggling of illicit products. The agency processes about 4 million de minimis shipments per day. The One Big Beautiful Bill, a massive tax-and-spending package Trump signed into law at the beginning of the month, includes a provision that cancels the de minimis rule on July 1, 2027. In 30 days, importers will be required to file customs declarations and pay duties and taxes on all imported goods, regardless of value. In many cases, those importers will be individuals who may balk at the complexity of filling out forms or paying higher prices for goods, especially as the Trump administration continues its campaign to significantly increase tariffs on nearly all trading partners. Earlier this week, for example, the EU tentatively agreed to accept 15% tariffs on its exports to smooth relations with the Trump administration. The National Council of Textile Organizations applauded Trump's executive order. 'The de minimis mechanism has functioned as a black box for low-cost, subsidized, and unethical Chinese imports and undermined the competitiveness of the U.S. textile industry — a key contributor to the workforce and the U.S. economy,' NCTO President Kim Glas said in a statement. 'We thank the president and his administration for listening, acting, and standing with American manufacturers and workers. Today's executive order is a game changer. It restores fairness for U.S. manufacturers, closes a major gateway for illegal and toxic goods, and lays the groundwork for reinvestment and job creation here at home.' Trump invoked the rarely-used International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare that illegal smuggling of fentanyl from Canada, Mexico and China constituted a national emergency and justified revoking de minimis, even though little of the synthetic drug comes via Canada. He quickly suspended the decree until the Commerce Department determined CBP had systems in place to collect duties from so many small shipments. In early May, Trump reimposed tariffs on low-value shipments from China and Hong Kong. Since then Temu and Shein sales in the U.S. have fallen 50% by some estimates. The executive order says those systems are now in place to process parcels from Canada, Mexico and the rest of the world as formal customs entries. Trump said suspending de minimis writ large was necessary as a remedy for the U.S. trade deficit, which he characterized as a national emergency. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has secured agreements from the United Kingdom and Japan to impose 10% and 15% tariffs, respectively. Most countries are currently operating under a universal 10% tariff that is set to expire on Aug. 1. The U.S. has threatened to impose double-digit tariffs of varying degrees on other countries that haven't reached tariff agreements by that date. The executive order requires air carriers and other transportation providers to collect and remit duties to CBP for shipments moved through the international postal system since the U.S. Postal Service doesn't have the ability to process entries through CBP's automated system. U.S.-based logistics providers are expected to benefit from the new trade policy as retailers will need to ship inventory in bulk and store it in domestic warehouses for fulfillment. Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch. Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@ RELATED STORIES: House considers universal de minimis ban as fees on China parcels ease CMA CGM to invest $20B in US shipping, supply chain capabilities The post Trump revokes de minimis privilege for global e-commerce imports appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
UPI
20 hours ago
- UPI
Border agents continue to confiscate guns being smuggled out of U.S.
July 30 (UPI) -- U.S. border officials said Wednesday that CBP officers in Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border still keep seizing a "large" number of outbound firearms in scores of attempted smugglings to other countries. U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized in the last two years through June over 400 handguns and long arms, nearly 1,000 magazines and gun parts, and nearly 52,000 rounds of ammunition. The agency's "core function" is to keep Americans safe by "ensuring that weapons and terrorists do not enter the United States," Thomas Mahn, CBP's area port director for Galveston and the Port of Houston, said in a statement. CBP's port officers stationed at the seaport in Houston and Galveston continue to seize its "large numbers" of guns, weapons and parts as attempted traffickers take steps to cross the border into Mexico. Officials pointed to Honduras as a primary location of the guns. Border officials added there's a likelihood that weapon shipments directed to other nations, such as Honduras, could "fuel chaos and contribute to escalating violence and instability in regions already grappling with security challenges." America's border office says the illegal smuggling of guns is often carried out by masking the weapons within shipments of otherwise legitimate goods in shipping containers. As an example, CBP officials also pointed to some 20 rounds of .45 ACP ammunition on its way to Honduras recently discovered hidden in a shipment of used household goods. It said another Honduras-bound seizure scored two pistols, two scopes, five magazines, one red-dot sight and 117 ammunition rounds, while a third shipment uncovered 769 rounds.
CNN
a day ago
- Politics
- CNN
Do you work at one of the federal immigration agencies? CNN wants to hear from you
The Trump administration is using a big cash infusion to ramp up immigration enforcement operations nationwide. That means increasing arrests, expanding immigrant detention, and recruiting thousands of new employees to help carry out the administration's agenda. CNN is looking to speak with personnel from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US Customs and Border Protection, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services to get their take on the administration's actions. Please reach out to us using the form below.
