Tariffs (CONT’D FROM PAGE 1)
Board Converting NEWS INTERNET DIRECTORY
I’m not going to say that I have a crystal ball, but what we do know is expect uncertainty, and expect tariffs to be in the future. There’s no situation where tariffs go away. In addition to the future uncertainty, what we are see- ing is the timeline from announcement to implementation being extremely short. This is a negotiating tactic of the President to get a little shock and awe and bring compa- nies or countries to the table, but it allows for very little room for companies to plan. And so what we’re seeing out there in the market is that businesses are very reluctant to make major purchases or changes in supply chain or change their purchasing because it’s unclear what the fu- ture holds —whether this is a temporary tariff or that tariff threat is going to be implemented in a week or six months. There’s just so much lack of clarity. Lack Of Future Clarity When we talk about lack of clarity about the future and things that have not already been implemented, there’s also tariffs today where the rules are very unclear. Because of the pace that some of these tariffs are being rolled out at the executive level, the administrative function of the government does not have enough time to think about ev- ery single circumstance that could apply to a business and whether they need a rule for it or they need to be clear about the guidance or whether there needs to be an ex- emption. So when the President signs an executive order, typically he wants things to happen right away. However, the regulatory process takes time and input from the busi- ness community to make sure that the law and regulation that gets rolled out is clear. So there’s a lot of question marks about how to properly comply and how much com- panies are supposed to be paying, which also opens the door to overpayments. Companies have overpaid tariffs over the last couple of months due to confusion and the rapid roll out of these policies. So what I get to work on a lot is preparing those refund claims and saying, “the customer’s broker messed up or the company didn’t really understand this policy, and we’d like our cash back.” And they will give it back so long as the gov- ernment’s not shut down and Treasury is issuing checks. Customs And Border Protection We’re seeing a lot of enforcement activity from Cus- toms and Border Protection, which is the primary agen- cy responsible for implementing and enforcing the tariffs. They’ve received an additional $1 billion in their budget, and very few of Custom’s staff was laid off or furloughed during the government shutdown. They only furloughed the lawyers. So Customs is fully operational. If the government is out there doing enforcement and the President is out there implementing a bunch of new rules and tariffs, what does that mean for companies? It’s that there’s a lot more paperwork involved. A lot more peo- ple like me, consultants, attorneys, accountants, we are all making a killing. Because it’s not making business easier,
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November 10, 2025
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