US Import Tariffs – How will these affect your business and what to do?

3 April 2025

Yesterday, 2 April 2025, new import tariffs were announced, both general and for specific products imported into the USA. A general tariff of 10% on imports from all countries has been imposed and will enter into effect on 5 April 2025.

Besides the general tariff of 10%, products imported with customs origin from certain countries will trigger additional individualized tariffs. For products with Chinese customs origin for example, an additional 34% import tariff will be imposed. Whereas goods originating from the EU will be faced with a 20% import tariff. These individualized tariffs will take effect on 9 April 2025.

The new tariffs will not be added to the recently announced 25% import tariff for steel, aluminium, cars and car parts. Energy, i.e. oil, gas and refined products have been exempted from the import tariffs.

The European Union had already announced new tariffs on certain US products prior to this announcement. It is expected that more and higher tariffs will be announced as a reaction to the new US import tariffs.

How to prevent or mitigate negative impact for your business

Considering that the new regulations are implemented in the existing customs legal frameworks, we encourage all businesses to look closely at their customs processes and supply chains.

There might be room for topics and optimization in classification (the legal practice of tariff engineering). As an example: certain components imported separately, may fall into a different tariff provision than the finished product and may thus avoid a higher tariff.

If tariff optimization is not possible in your business, it might be possible to optimize your country of origin. This might work for products with multiple components sourced in different countries. These rules differ from product to product and need careful attention. Note, that more than 150 products originating from China remain eligible for exclusions or exemptions.

Other strategies to mitigate the impact of the announced higher tariffs are to be found in customs valuation / making use of the first-sale-rule or other possibilities to lower the customs valuation of the product upon import. This is obviously closely connected to your Transfer Pricing policies. Finally there are possibilities in duty deferral or draw back.