U.S. Tariff Update - April 24, 2025

This week appears to have seen less changes than previous weeks to U.S. tariff policy and general U.S. trade trends, however, there are still a few updates and reports we would like to acknowledge:

While there appears to be speculation about the reduction of tariffs on goods that have originated from China, at this time there has not been any official movement on any such reductions. We are keeping a close eye on the international discussion between the U.S. and China and are waiting for official rulings on any changes.
- The rate of an additional 145% on top of existing tariffs and duties is still in effect for any goods originating from China that are imported into the U.S. at the time of this report.
A reminder that tariffs are assessed at the time of customs clearance. The best references and advisors on a plan of action and/or creating a timeline to import goods are the vendors and the vendors' import freight forwarding companies. These folks will have the most up-to-date information and have resources to assist in this process.
As we have been highlighting in our monthly port reports, we have seen an increase in import activity (7% year over year), with the West Coast port share continuing to outpace the East Coast.
- This increase in import activity has also been associated with vendors and suppliers importing many materials and goods well in advance of demand to try to address some of the uncertainty that was a result of the potential of a long-lasting East Coast Port strike (that did not come to pass and has since been resolved in late 2024).
- However, ocean vessel reliability has been consistently hovering around 55%, which means that sailings are being blanked or pushed back globally even before all of the tariff changes in the U.S. . There are initial reports forecasting a significant decrease in the number of booked container ship sailing s even beyond the typical dip that is seen in the spring and summer months.
  - This may result in vendors overseas having a difficult time securing container capacity on vessels, however, since these reports are presently just estimates, we are not able to review the full impact until we are able to see actual sailing data.
  - This forecasted decrease in activity does not appear to be related to a loss of capacity or other factors, but rather importers and vendors reacting to the uncertainty surrounding U.S. tariffs, particularly around goods originating in China due to the high cost to import.

We expect the policy and guidance to continue to change over the coming weeks. We will post weekly updates but our advice remains the same. The best advisors to talk to are the vendors and importers handling the transport of these goods into the U.S.. Importer companies and the vendors themselves are better able to advise on which components of the products - if any - may be subject to the new tariffs, taxes, and fees and can help make plans accordingly.