Assume tariff will change at 0:00 tomorrow in this time zone. If ship, train, truck, airplane cross border, enter air space, enter exclusive economic zone, or territorial sea before 0:00 then still apply old tariff? Or governments use time when unload cargo or time when government official inspect cargo is time for decide apply old or new tariff?
1 Answer
This is presumably going to be explained in the wording of the ruling introducing the tariff. For example, Executive Order 14257 states in section 3(a):
Such rates of duty shall apply with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on April 5, 2025, except that goods loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in transit on the final mode of transit before 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on April 5, 2025, and entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on April 5, 2025, shall not be subject to such additional duty.
Trump's other Executive Orders have similar text. In practice, what's important is the time of entering or clearing customs, not the time of entering the exclusive economic zone or territorial waters (just as visa validity is concerned with when you arrive at a port of entry, for example), but I suppose there's no reason a country couldn't impose tariffs based on the time goods entered its EEZ if it so chose.
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4In many cases goods will be held in "bonded warehouses" where they are not considered to be "imported" yet, until they get out of there and go through customs. Apparently some seem to have seen their business flourish these last few weeks with people storing goods there waiting for the tariffs to go down.jcaron– jcaron2025-07-09 23:42:41 +00:00Commented Jul 9, 2025 at 23:42
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@jcaron if I understand correctly, this is what "goods withdrawn from warehouse for consumption" refers to.user111403– user1114032025-07-10 05:16:36 +00:00Commented Jul 10, 2025 at 5:16
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3The 'loaded onto a vessel' part suggests that as soon as the goods have been loaded onto a ship bound for the US they fall under the rules at the time of loading/departure, rather than the time of arrival. When these tariffs were announced, exporters from China were frantically trying to get goods onto ships since once they were loaded (and under way?) they fell under the previous rules. In that case it didn't matter when the vessel crossed the EEZ or docked.user1908704– user19087042025-07-10 11:17:05 +00:00Commented Jul 10, 2025 at 11:17
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1From New York Times, sometimes both time ship leave from export port and time enter import port: "In general, the duties do not apply to foreign goods that have been loaded onto ships just before Aug. 7. Those products in transit won’t be subject to new taxes so long as they enter the United States before early October..."Châu– Châu2025-08-07 06:54:47 +00:00Commented Aug 7, 2025 at 6:54