Tariff Traps and Escapes

On today’s show we are talking about the methods that major importers are using to delay or outright eliminate the impact of tariffs. Let me be clear, I’m not a global transportation expert, nor am I here to offer any legal advice on what you can and can’t do when it comes to importing good to the US or any other country for that matter. But I can point you in the direction of areas in which you might want to perform your own research.

Tariffs and duties have been making daily headlines for the past month. We have also seen a lot of volatility when it comes to the regulations that seem to change from one day to the next.

If you are importing goods to the US that might be already on a ship, you might be understandably upset to find that an order you placed months ago would face a steep tariff charge that you had not planned for, and then maybe a few weeks later discover that the tariff you paid might be changed, lowered, or maybe even eliminated. 

As a business owner, what can you do to protect the value of your inventory?

To start with, you don’t need to pay the tariff the second the goods enter the country. Again, I’m not offering advice here. This is something you will want to check out for yourself with the consultation of experts. There is something called a customs bonded warehouse. The items in a customs bonded warehouse are physically in the US, but have not cleared US Customs. The duty only gets paid when the goods leave the warehouse. 

So let’s say that you have several months of inventory in your supply chain. You maintain a steady flow of material entering the country and those deliveries are coming every 4 weeks. You have 3 months until you deplete your domestic inventory. So instead of paying the tariff when the container comes off a ship, how about putting those contents in a bonded warehouse instead?

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