Customs brokers thought the business changed last year. Fresh tariffs have changed the landscape

Cross-border shipping is the front line of the trade war, and brokers are adapting at a 'fast and furious' pace United States President Donald Trump had just announced 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods, and as a customs broker, Mrs. McEwan relied on per-entry fees from her clients as they moved products across the border. But it quickly became clear in February, 2025, that there would be an even greater need for her services than before. And things have only ramped up with this summer's latest drama. Mrs. McEwan's team at Hemisphere Freight and Brokerage Services Inc., based in Toronto's west end, helps move everything 'from rugs to drugs,' as she puts it. 'We have pharmaceuticals. We have food items. We have wood flooring. We have carpets. We have prefabricated structures. Yeah, it's everything. 'understand the fine print of Mr. Trump's ever-changing policies. After all, brokers' first duty is to ensure clients' goods are properly declared and tariffs are accounted for so they can clear customs. By March, though, some categories of goods were still at issue, Canadians exporting to the U.S. learned they would get some solace if their goods were compliant with the Canada-United States-Mexico trade deal. But that fragile sense of stability didn't last long. In August of this year, Mr. Trump enacted 50 per cent levies on Canadian imports throughprevious exemptions. Canada slapped back with countertariffs that are due to come into effect on Sept. 8. For customs brokerages, once again, business has become exponentially more complex. The exhaustive list of targeted goods has drastically increased their scope of responsibility. Mrs. McEwan calls this level of difficulty and uncertainty a 'worst-case scenario. ' But as clients scramble to understand the rapidly evolving levy landscape and face the threat of serious financial hardship, customs brokers' work to help reduce their tariff exposure has become more crucial than ever. And the complexity is bringing in a lot of new customers seeking shipping advice. Canadian brokers have had to become experts at clearing the all-the-more-tricky administrative hurdles needed to legally ship goods. HS codes, which are standardized multiple-digit codes used to classify goods for trade, along with confirming every product's country of origin to determine how tariffs are applied. Brokers then use online tariff simulator tools – calibrated to include the latest developments in the eye-for-an-eye trade war – to crunch the numbers for shipments, often with the help of AI.for duties and taxes that the government pushed for to eliminate paper-based and manual processes. – Canada Border Service Agency Assessment and Revenue Management – the responsibility of paying duties shifted from customs brokers to individual clients who now need their own surety bonds to clear shipments. But brokers still help clients with this process, so it adds to the load.into a hiring spree, including adding team members to manage CARM: 'I've had to create six different divisions that I never would have had to have prior to this,' she explained. PCB Global Trade Management's chief executive officer, Greg Timm, described a similar zero-to-100 transformation of his business, which started at the beginning of the trade war and has since intensified. The Surrey, B.C. , brokerage's phones lines and intake channels have exploded in recent weeks, as customers flood in with questions about what to do. Mr. Timm said he is operating on a 24/7 business model that has no margin of error. 'Our job is not to close our eyes and let something pass through and declare it incorrectly,' he said. Tariffs have uprooted decades-old cross-border relationships that businesses built in a free-trade environment, Mr. Timm said. 'A shipper that imports into Canada also exports to the United States, or vice versa. Canadian companies and U.S. companies have a long history of working together, trusting each other, understanding each other's product line,' he said. This dynamic affects countless Canadian manufacturers. For example, AG Care manufactures its performance hair products in a 70,000-square-foot Coquitlam, B.C. , factory. It imports a range of raw materials such as quinoa protein from the U.S. to make its recipes. If the Sept. 8 Canadian countertariffs go into effect, the company will face 50 per cent levies when importing these ingredients, then get hit again by U.S. tariffs when sending products back to U.S. customers, said chief revenue officer Karla Cheon. When the Section 338 tariffs were imposed by the U.S. in August, the brand initially closed its e-commerce operations for U.S. customers and began redirecting them to purchase its products from other retailers such as Ulta and Amazon. But because of the importance of AG Care's direct-to-consumer relationships, she said, the company decided to re-open its U.S. e-commerce store and is now opting to pay tariffs on imports and take the hit on its profit margins.works with – one based in Canada, and one based in the U.S. – are essential to maintain the brand's supply chain. 'It would be rare for a company to do it itself, and that's why we have these partners who are experts because we cross the border a number of times on a daily basis. ' It is painstakingly specialized work: A broker helping a hair-care company navigate the current tariff landscape must understand if a product is technically classified as a shampoo, a hair lacquer or a treatment, because each category is treated differently, Ms. Cheon said. Here's how Canada's countertariffs could hit your wallet Lisa McLaughlin, a client services manager at A & A Customs Brokers based in Surrey, has had to become a pro at navigating these classification differences outlined on what she calls 'the hit list. ' With 32 years of experience in the customs brokerage industry, Ms. McLaughlin leads a team of five other customer-facing employees. Their workload has recently surged as they aim to anticipate problems before they arise and support importers who have varying degrees of knowledge about how the trade war will alter their businesses. 'When we see this kind of stuff coming down the pipe, in addition to all the day to day, which just never stops, it never slows down, it's questions of every sort. Now we're trying to be proactive,' she said. That involves looking at clients' inventories, figuring out which products are targeted by matching product HS codes and then presenting that information to customers. Compared to disruptions caused by tariffs last year, Ms. McLaughlin said this time around feels much more 'fast and furious. ' 'This time, because it's changing constantly and there's new ones coming, and then you see Trump making and then Canada reacting and customers going, 'What's going to happen? ' It's actually mind-blowing sometimes. '