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Escalating tariff costs a major financial shift for US importers

The US has reinstated 25 % tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico, the EU and Korea. Shutterstock. com

By Michael Angell

The Trump administration’ s flurry of threats against trading partners puts shippers at risk of tariff“ stacking” as import duties compound on top of other charges, customs experts say. That threat adds to the increasing compliance burden on shippers facing what one expert described as a“ massive, historic shift” in the cost of US import duties.

On March 11, President Donald Trump’ s executive order ending tariff exemptions on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, the European Union and South Korea went into effect. The move essentially reinstated a 25 % tariff from Trump’ s first administration, but from which those countries had successfully negotiated exemptions.

Complying with the tariffs“ is going to be a major headache for everybody when you are importing goods into the United States” as it will require calculating the non-US metal content of goods for their customs entry, Cameron Roberts, partner at trade and customs law specialist Roberts & Kehagiaras, said at the Journal of Commerce’ s TPM25 conference.

“ That will be an important one to watch,” Roberts said.“ There has been a recent discussion and information from the US Customs messaging system about derivatives and figuring out how much of the steel in a product is made from non-US steel and paying the countervailing duty on those amounts.” Tariffs on copper imports could also rise under a pending US trade investigation.

Those tariffs would stack with the current 25 % tariff rates on all goods from Canada and Mexico, along with the 20 % tariffs on imports from China. The cornerstone of Trump’ s“ America First” trade policy, Roberts said, is removing the trade deficit between the US and its three largest trading partners.

“ The answer from the administration is we are going to make it extremely expensive to import into the United States,” Roberts said.“ So, these [ tariffs ] are stacking.

“ Over the last two decades, tariff rates have averaged 2 % to 3 %,” he added.“ We are seeing now— what— a [ multiple of 10 ] change? This is a massive historic shift.”

New US administration leaves IMO membership in flux: DNV

By Greg Knowler

A crucial April meeting of the International Maritime Organization( IMO) will be the first during President Donald Trump’ s second term, with the US currently“ in a holding pattern” regarding continued membership of the IMO, according to classification society DNV.

The 176 member states of the IMO will gather at the 83rd Marine Environment Protection Committee( MEPC) meeting in London from April 7 – 11 to design a greenhouse gas( GHG) fuel intensity regulation and settle on an economic measure for taxing carbon emissions, with both measures aiming for implementation in 2027.

Eirik Nyhus, director for environment and maritime at DNV, said in a mid-March MEPC update that the US position regarding the IMO going forward remained unclear.

At the last meeting of the IMO’ s Intersessional Working

Group on Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships in late February, Nyhus said the US did not take the floor until the very end, stating that the new administration was reassessing all its United Nations positions and policies. The IMO is a specialized agency of the UN.

The Trump administration is also withdrawing from the Paris climate change accord, part of a broader initiative of“ reviewing for rescission all regulations that impose undue burdens on energy production and use.”

A spokesperson for the IMO told the Journal of Commerce that“ any member state can withdraw from the organization, as outlined in Article 73 of the IMO Convention, though they would still be bound by the treaties to which they are party.”

Still, Nyhus played down the significance of a potential US withdrawal with the IMO having far more important issues to focus on.

“ While the US has turned into a bit of a wild card, I cannot see this being a showstopper [ at MEPC ] in any way,” he noted.“ Many issues, big and small, remain under negotiation, with the two most challenging ones being the design of the greenhouse gas fuel intensity regulation and the choice of economic measure. The discussions remain intensely political.”

The goal is to have a net-zero framework ready for approval at MEPC 83 in London, and there is pressure on

32 Journal of Commerce | April 7, 2025 www. joc. com