Are We Ready for Traceability Challenge from Trump’s Tariff War?

While it is still early days for the Trump administration, news agencies are chock-full of stories to report. Amongst the most popular have been the constant changes in US trade policy, which are not only surprising to many, but which seem to lack a clear path for allowing governments and business to modify their own policies to manage the effects of the US ones.

Recently, the US announced a 25% tariff on imports from the European Union, while additional tariffs on non-USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) goods, such as the 25% tariff on steel and aluminium from Canada and Mexico, are expected to impact cross-border trade in North America. If we also include the new tariffs for China and retaliatory tariffs from other trading partners, we are looking at a very complex economic problem worldwide.

One could posit that each new announcement regarding tariffs presents both an opportunity and a challenge, but with so many unexpected and apparently arbitrary changes, how can tax administrations manage potential impacts intelligently with respect to their own countries’ economic outlook and cross-border trading?