Through various press conferences and social media postings, President Donald Trump has floated the idea of implementing tariffs against Canadian and Mexican imports beginning February 1, 2025, in response to lack of attention to cross-border movements of immigrants and handling of the fentanyl crisis.
While we have no insight into the implementation strategy or under which provision of law these potential tariffs may be imposed, we recognize the critical nature of these comments and the fact that they will greatly impact our clients. We understand that programming changes will need to be developed by US Customs and shared with the trade community to allow for collection of such tariffs, which could delay the initiative by weeks. However, at this time, we have no insight into timelines or if retroactivity will apply.
There is widespread speculation in the news and numerous opinions on how this issue may unfold. However, no executive order or official legal guidance has been published to formally initiate the process.
We will be monitoring this closely throughout the balance of today and this weekend and provide additional information as soon as it is available.