Introduction to tariffs

On election for his second term as US president Donald Trump stated his intention to impose tariffs even stating that tariff is ‘the most beautiful word in the dictionary’. At the start of April ‘liberation day’ propelled this age-old concept into the bright lights of everyday vocabulary. So what are tariffs? How has the US administration worked out the new tariff rates? How do they actually work and who pays them?

From forgotten tax to boardroom agenda

Customs practitioners used to call customs duty the ‘forgotten tax’. In the days before Brexit customs duty was simply known as a cost which came off the bottom line and could not be recovered. Roll forward a few years and we again see customs duty rates or tariffs at the top of peoples’ to-do lists and the number one global talking point. So what...