Arriana McLymore and Nicholas P. Brown
5 min read
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By Arriana McLymore and Nicholas P. Brown
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. importers are increasingly relying on customs brokers to keep up with President Donald Trump’s ever-changing trade policies. But booming demand for help in processing foreign goods has made these services more expensive, adding another cost to the tariff burden, industry players told Reuters.
Customs brokerages, until recently an anonymous branch of the import ecosystem, handle the paperwork needed to process shipments and calculate tariff bills. Mom-and-pop brokers interviewed by Reuters say they are raising fees, while major logistics firms like Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx and Germany-based DHL are also adding staff to their customs compliance teams.
Market research firms ballpark customs brokering as a roughly $5 billion industry in the United States. Hiring a broker is optional, but the increasing complexities of U.S. tariffs and customs regulations are leading more importers to shell out the cash.
Independent brokers like Laredo, Texas-based JD Gonzalez are fielding dozens of questions daily from concerned clients struggling to understand what they may owe to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and whether to go ahead with shipments or hold off.
Brokers are also spending more time and labor on customs forms than ever, and have in some cases implemented new IT systems.
“With all the new information we have to process, some of the automation we've used has been thrown out, so there’s more work to do,” said JD Gonzalez, who is also president of custom brokerage trade group NCBFAA.
The trend is part of a broader wave of corporate efforts to bolster trade compliance operations. Major companies, from Nike to Amazon to Lowe’s , had published job postings as of Wednesday for trade and customs professionals.
Nike was seeking a “lead” for trade and customs, who would “play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our trade compliance framework,” according to the post on Nike’s careers website. Amazon, meanwhile, had at least 10 U.S. customs brokerage jobs listed on its careers website. Lowe's had three.
Nike, Amazon and Lowe’s did not respond to requests for comment.
HIGHER FEES
Independent brokers often base their fees on the number of codes they must enter to classify the contents of a given shipment. Known as harmonized tariff schedule codes, these line items help border officials distinguish car parts from children's toys, and determine proper tariff rates.
Prior to Trump's frenetic tariff policies, fees ranged from around $4 to $7 per code. But Gonzalez said the extra costs brokers have incurred as they ramp up systems to handle the tariff changes have led some to increase fees by $1 to $5 per code.
