Tariff Disputes Are Rising — Your Customs Attorney Guide

Tariff Disputes Are Rising. Here's What Importers Need to Know Before It's Too Late

The trade environment in the United States has shifted dramatically over the last several years, and importers are feeling it at the bottom line. Tariff rates have climbed. Anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders have expanded. The rules governing country of origin have become flashpoints for enforcement. And CBP, with a mandate to generate revenue and enforce trade policy simultaneously, has intensified its scrutiny of import transactions across virtually every product category.

For businesses that import goods into the US — whether they're bringing in raw materials, components, finished consumer products, or industrial equipment — the margin for error has narrowed considerably. A tariff misclassification that might have gone unnoticed a decade ago is now a real compliance risk. A country-of-origin question that seemed academic is now potentially the difference between a manageable duty rate and a crushing one.

This is the environment in which working with a customs attorney has shifted from optional to essential for serious importers.

The Tariff Landscape Has Changed — Has Your Compliance Strategy?

Most importers have a customs broker. Most customs brokers are competent, experienced, and provide genuine value in managing the logistics and documentation of the import process. But customs brokers are not lawyers. They cannot give legal advice, represent clients in proceedings before CBP or the Court of International Trade, or provide the kind of strategic legal guidance that protects importers when things get adversarial.

The distinction matters most when tariff disputes arise — and in the current trade environment, they arise more frequently and more consequentially than at any point in recent history. When CBP challenges a classification, questions the accuracy of a valuation, or disputes a country-of-origin claim, the importer needs legal representation, not just a logistics partner.

A customs attorney who specializes in tariff and trade law provides something a customs broker structurally cannot: the ability to advocate aggressively on your behalf through the full spectrum of administrative and judicial remedies.

Understanding Where Tariff Disputes Come From

Not every tariff dispute starts with an obvious error. Many arise from genuine ambiguity in how the Harmonized Tariff Schedule applies to a particular product — ambiguity that reasonable people can interpret differently, but that CBP tends to resolve in the direction that generates more revenue.

Consider a product that could plausibly be classified under two different HTS headings — one carrying a 3.5% duty rate and one carrying 12%. Both classifications might be defensible based on the text of the tariff schedule. But CBP, conducting a review or audit, will tend to apply the higher rate unless the importer can make a compelling legal argument for the lower one.

Without a tariff attorney who understands how to frame that argument — citing the General Rules of Interpretation, relevant CBP administrative rulings, and the Explanatory Notes to the international Harmonized System — the importer simply pays the higher rate. With that expertise engaged, there's a real possibility of reclassification and duty recovery going back years.

The Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty Dimension

Ordinary tariff disputes are consequential. ADD/CVD disputes can be existential. Anti-dumping and countervailing duties are imposed on top of regular tariff rates and can run to hundreds of percent — effectively closing US markets to affected goods unless importers can navigate the legal and administrative framework correctly.

For importers dealing with products subject to ADD/CVD orders, the stakes of getting classification and country-of-origin determinations right are enormous. An error that places goods within the scope of an ADD/CVD order — when they arguably shouldn't be — can result in duty bills that dwarf the value of the merchandise.

A customs attorney with experience in ADD/CVD proceedings can evaluate whether a product genuinely falls within an order's scope, help structure supply chains to lawfully minimize exposure, and represent importers in scope determinations and administrative reviews before the Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission.

Country-of-Origin: The Question That's More Complicated Than It Looks

Globalized supply chains have made country-of-origin determinations genuinely complex — and CBP knows it. When goods are made using components from multiple countries, or when manufacturing processes are split across jurisdictions, determining which country confers origin is often not obvious.

This matters enormously under the current tariff regime, where goods from certain countries face dramatically higher duty rates than goods from others. The temptation to structure supply chains in ways that shift nominal origin — without the substantial transformation the law requires — is one CBP actively scrutinizes. Getting this wrong, even inadvertently, can result in penalties on top of the correct duty assessment.

Getting it right requires legal analysis, not just documentation. A customs attorney evaluates origin questions against the specific rules applicable to each product, advises on what level of transformation is legally sufficient, and helps build the documentation record that supports the origin claim in an audit.

Protests and the Court of International Trade

When a customs entry liquidates at an adverse rate — whether through misclassification, a valuation dispute, or an origin determination — importers have a legal right to protest that decision with CBP. If the protest is denied, the case can be pursued in the Court of International Trade, the specialized federal court with jurisdiction over customs and trade matters.

This is where legal representation is not just helpful but necessary. CIT proceedings follow federal court rules, require legal filings, involve discovery and briefing, and ultimately result in judicial decisions that can either recover the disputed duties or close the door on them permanently.

Customs lawyers who practice regularly before the CIT understand how cases are built, how CBP defends its classifications, and what arguments actually move judges in this specialized court. It's a narrow litigation universe, and experience in it is genuinely difficult to replicate.

The Cost of Waiting

One of the most consistent patterns in customs disputes is that importers who engage legal counsel early recover more duties, pay smaller penalties, and preserve more options than those who wait. The protest timeline is strict — generally 180 days from liquidation — and missing it forfeits the right to judicial review entirely. Penalty response windows are similarly unforgiving.

Every month of delay is a month where the administrative record is forming without legal guidance, where statements are being made to CBP without strategic consideration of their implications, and where the best available remedies are narrowing.

Why SSSPO Is the Right Firm for This Work

Stein Shostak Shostak Pollack & O'Hara, LLP has been navigating the intersection of customs law, tariff policy, and international trade for over nine decades. That institutional depth means the firm has seen virtually every classification dispute, seizure scenario, and FTA qualification question that arises in practice — and has developed strategies that consistently produce favorable outcomes.

The firm's attorneys have earned the respect of CBP officials and the broader international trade community, a reputation that translates into more productive dialogue in the administrative process. And the firm's Shanghai office positions it uniquely to serve importers whose supply chains run through China — a group that has faced some of the most complex and consequential tariff developments in recent history.

Your Next Step Is Simple

If you're importing goods into the United States and navigating a classification dispute, a penalty notice, a seizure, or simply uncertainty about whether your current compliance posture is defensible, the right move is a conversation with a customs attorney who specializes in exactly these issues.

Reach out to Stein Shostak Shostak Pollack & O'Hara, LLP at (213) 630-8888 or visit steinshostak.com/attorneys today. Decades of experience, a track record that speaks for itself, and counsel that can be with you before the dispute — not just after it.