Customs brokers are cross-border trade gurus. With tariff whiplash, they're facing 'toxic uncertainty'

Dan Patrick De Los Santos's workday looks very different then it did a few months ago before the Trump administration tariffs upended trade — and his job description.  

Before the levies hit, De Los Santos said about 80 per cent of the shipments he helped to clear customs were routine. 

But now, "honestly, it's just damage control," the customs broker said.  

De Los Santos works for Inland Customs Brokers Ltd., a company based in Guelph, Ont. He's among the people who manage the details for how to get goods through customs. 

They help businesses understand how much duty might apply to their imports and exports and whether they are subject to any health and safety clearances. Then, their job is to file that information with the government. 

With the ever-changing tariff landscape, De Los Santos has been working overtime.

"My job used to be nine to five, Monday to Friday. Now it's actually been like 9 a.m. to, like, 8 p.m. getting some calls [from] clients because they have a last-minute tariff change." 

Since Trump's tariffs were enacted earlier this year, Inland Customs has been trying to help their clients reorient their business to new markets and decipher the onslaught of new tariffs. Meanwhile, they are also helping customers consider the future of their business if imports to the United States are too costly. 

Customs brokers are experts when it comes to the details — their entire business is built around the idea that it's worth hiring them to do your customs entries, because they'll get it right. (It's a lot like hiring an accountant to file your taxes.) 

But with the constant changes, it's very hard for them to be the authority on anything. 

"We are like therapists now," said De Los Santos. "The really hard part here is ... the phone calls of people crying. That, you know, they don't want to pay this, [they are] devastated by the fact that their product that they're trying to sell is just being hit and … there's no choice for them but to just absorb the cost."

Dave Coulson can relate. He said he's been getting calls around the clock, often from people who aren't even their clients — and they're all looking for help in how to navigate the nebulous world of tariffs.

"I'm picking up the phone at 11 p.m. on a Sunday night with a trucker," the chief operations officer at Border Buddy said. "It's somebody stuck, and they can't get across the border and they need your help now. And we're just all hands on deck."

Industries had so little time to prepare for the tariffs, say insiders helping businesses navigate cross-border trade, which compounded the challenge.