Importers will have to make changes to pay new duties on goods from Canada, Mexico and China, and government agencies will need additional resources to enforce the duties.
The massive tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese products imposed by President Trump on Tuesday could strain the import duty collection system and the government agencies that enforce them, trade and legal experts said.
Collecting import duties is usually a routine task, but the new tariffs are being imposed on Mexican and Canadian goods, many of which have been imported duty-free into the U.S. for years. Compounding the problem is the sheer volume of goods subject to the new tariffs—U.S. imports from China, Mexico, and Canada totaled more than $1.3 trillion last year, or about two-fifths of all imports.
The tariffs include a 25 percent duty on goods from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10 percent duty on imports from China.
Importers typically hire customs brokers to calculate and pay duties to the government agency that collects them, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Adam Lewis, co-founder and president of Clearit, a customs broker, said it wouldn’t be difficult to set up software to collect the new tariffs, but that a key part of the tariff payment system could require significant adjustments. Importers must buy a “customs bond,” a type of insurance that guarantees the duties will be paid. Mr. Lewis said some customers may have to increase the size of their bonds to cover the additional tariff payments.
“A lot of their goods were coming in duty-free, and suddenly there's a 25 percent increase,” he said. “That's quite a lot.”
