In 2025, U.S. customs brokers find themselves in the eye of a trade storm, juggling shifting tariffs and an increasingly opaque administration.
A Century of Trade, Now in Turmoil
Amy Magnus, a customs broker in her 70s based on Marco Island, Florida, has spent more than five decades navigating the labyrinth of U.S. trade regulations. After 18 years at U.S. Customs, she began her brokerage career in 1992. She has cleared everything from crude oil to diamonds, and has always relied on precise rules to avoid uncertainty.
“We don’t like to have any doubt, we don’t like to leave anything up to interpretation,” Magnus says. “When we ourselves are struggling, trying to interpret and understand the meaning of some of these things, it is a very unsettling place to be.”
The New Tariff Landscape
Since January 2025, tariffs have been imposed in ways Magnus and other brokers had never seen before. New rules have left them wondering what they really mean, and federal workers, once a reliable backstop, have grown more elusive.
“2025 has changed the trade system,” says Magnus. “It wasn’t perfect before, but it was a functioning system. Now, it is a lot more chaotic and troubling.”
Tariffs that were previously duty-free are now levied, and those that carried minimal fees have ballooned into thousands of dollars. Brokers are forced to apply multiple tariff codes to a single product, sometimes up to five separate numbers.
“That one line item of cheese that previously was just one tariff, now it could be two, three, in some cases five tariff numbers,” says 53-year-old Al Raffa, a customs broker in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
White House Orders and Broker Response
With President Donald Trump at the helm, trade policy changes can come in a Truth Social post or an oversized chart clutched by the president in a Rose Garden appearance. The speed and vagueness of the orders have left brokers scrambling to dissect the rules and update their systems.
“You’d be remiss not to be looking at the White House website on a daily basis, multiple times a day, just to see what executive order is going to be announced,” Raffa says.
The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America president, JD Gonzalez, notes that the volume and speed of changes are challenging enough, but the wording of the orders often leaves more unanswered questions.
“The order is kind of vague sometimes, the guidance that’s being provided is sometimes murky, and we’re trying to make the determination,” Gonzalez says.
Gonzalez recalls 10-digit tariff codes for alcohol and doors, and the complex web of rules that determine duties on a chair with a U.S. steel frame processed in Mexico. As the workload grows, some firms have begun charging customers more for their services.
“You double the time,” Gonzalez says.
The Human Side: Brokers and Their Customers
Brokers see the imprint of their work everywhere they go. Gonzalez looks at a T-shirt tag and thinks of the work that got it into the country. Magnus sees Belgian chocolate or Chinese silk and is awed that it still arrived despite the obstacles.
Raffa walks through a supermarket, picks up a can of artichoke hearts, and considers every possible regulation that might apply to secure its import. The recognition they receive this year is heartening.
“It was maybe taken for granted how that wonderful piece of gourmet cheese got on the shelf, or that Gucci bag,” says Raffa. “Up until this year, people were clueless what I did.”
Challenges Beyond the Tariffs
The Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting blitz under billionaire Elon Musk led to layoffs and retirements of trusted federal workers who brokers rely on for guidance. A shutdown slowed operations at ports, and fear of being out of step with the administration has made some federal employees cautious about decoding trade orders.
Magnus was befuddled by moves that seemed at odds with everything she knew of trade policy. Canada was treated as an adversary, Switzerland faced 39% tariffs, and other unexpected changes defied her understanding of global commerce.
“It’s like an incredible ballet to be able to trade with all these countries all over the world,” she says. “In my own mind, I always felt that as long as we were trading and we were friendly with each other, we were reducing the chance of war and killing each other.”
Work has been so hectic that Magnus hasn’t managed to take a vacation. Weekends are upended by Friday afternoon edicts announcing a tariff is going into effect or being taken away. It has become an inside joke with colleagues.
“It’s Friday afternoon,” she says. “Is everybody watching?”
A couple hours after Magnus repeats this, the next White House order is posted, undoing a slew of tariffs on agricultural products and sending brokers into another scurry.
Key Takeaways
- 2025 tariffs have become more chaotic, with multiple codes per product.
- Brokers must monitor White House website constantly to interpret vague orders.
- Federal workforce reductions and port shutdowns have added to the uncertainty.
As the Trump administration continues to reshape America’s trade landscape, customs brokers find themselves both the frontline and the unseen engine behind every product that lands on U.S. shelves. Their work, once hidden, is now in the spotlight, but the volatility of policy and the erosion of federal support keep their job more demanding than ever.
