When employees at customs broker Logistics Plus signed into work on Thursday, they discovered a torrent of emails from worried customers. Gretchen Blough, a manager in Erie, Pa., says half of the emails came from importers scrambling to get shipments into the country as a crush of new levies came into effect. The other half, she said, were from businesses simply trying to figure out what they had to do.
While import duties have always been part of U.S. commerce, President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement dramatically increased the cost of tariffs and the scope of goods to which they apply. This means that many U.S. firms must not only pay more for what they import, but must also devote time to deciphering a complex customs bureaucracy.
