The Customs Watch USA: Edition 28
- Arne Mielken
- Sep 8, 2025
- 3 min read
🔒Modifying Reciprocal Tariffs | Implementing US-Japan Deal | Illegal Transshipping Alert | Record-High Dumping Margins | Classification rulings are overturned | CBP sharpens its enforcement tools
Edition 28 - Week 37/2025
Period Covered: 1 September 2025 – 8 September 2025
Published: 8 September 2025
Colleagues,
Welcome back after the summer break! In this edition, we’ve gathered all the key updates from August to ensure you’re fully caught up on everything you may have missed. This is professional trade intelligence only available with your PRO subscription.
PRO BLOGS for you to check out:
Executive Order 14257: U.S. Reciprocal Tariffs: Full analysis of the 5 core elements trade professionals need to know about U.S. reciprocal tariffs under EO14257, as amended (incl. downloads + links)
The 2025 U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement (Trade Deal) 15% baseline tariffs on Japanese imports apply retroactively from Aug 7, 2025; wait for CBP guidance before PSCs or protests.
Unpack the $550 billion U.S.–Japan trade agreement and what it means for Customs, compliance, and market access in 2025.
Download The Customs Watch USA Pdf Now:
What we cover in the Pdf:
Tariffs, investigations, and compliance crackdowns dominate this week’s customs and trade landscape.
Presidential Executive Orders of 5 September 2025 reshapes reciprocal tariffs.
CTPAT flags illegal transshipment as a top risk, warning of steep penalties and potential
40% tariffs for importers relying on dubious routing or origin claims.
Commerce delivers a blow to Taiwan’s chemical sector with preliminary dumping margins as high as 286% on monomers and oligomers, setting the stage for aggressive final measures.
Executive action reshapes U.S.–Japan trade, imposing a baseline 15% tariff on most Japanese imports, coupled with historic $550 billion in Japanese investments and major new access for U.S. rice, agriculture, and autos.
Classification rulings are overturned, with optical patch panels and forklift attachments reclassified into higher-duty categories, while proposed changes would also capture underwater drones, vehicle protectors, and spa covers.
CBP sharpens its enforcement tools, extending its EAPA allegations portal with new data and confidentiality requirements, intensifying scrutiny on fraud and evasion.
Fresh AD/CVD actions target Brazil and Norway’s dissolving pulp, while new reviews extend to steel, quartz, solar cells, and sunset reviews on rebar and kitchen shelving—broadening the scope of U.S. trade defense.
FDA escalates its import surveillance, detaining shipments from cheese to shrimp, medical instruments, cosmetics, and aquaculture products—signaling high compliance risk across food, pharma, and consumer goods.
De minimis is officially gone: CBP ends the $800 duty-free treatment for all countries, forcing all low-value shipments into formal entry processes—an operational shock for e-commerce and express importers.
Ambassador Jamieson Greer reinforces Trump’s trade agenda, tying tariffs and reciprocal trade to sovereignty, reshoring, and cultural renewal, leaving no doubt that enforcement is now political as well as economic.
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