As new tariff rules kick in, procurement leaders face a surge in documentation requirements—raising operational risk and exposing a critical weak spot in compliance workflows.
Tariffs Shift—Paper Trails Multiply
While most of the attention around tariffs falls on cost impact, the real drag may lie elsewhere: paperwork. The latest U.S. tariff measures, including the shift away from traditional Most-Favored Nation (MFN) rules and the elimination of low-value exemptions from China and Hong Kong, are reshaping not just what goods cost—but how they move. And that’s creating a surge in customs administration that many procurement teams are unprepared for.
Under the new structure, proving origin has never been more critical. As the U.S. selectively applies higher tariffs based on country of origin, importers must now navigate a far more granular and high-stakes rules-of-origin (ROO) regime. These designations aren’t straightforward—especially in complex supply chains with mixed sourcing or multi-country assembly—and mistakes can trigger denied entries, delayed clearances, or steep duty adjustments.
For supply chain leaders who recall the post-Brexit customs disruption in Europe, the current dynamic feels eerily familiar. Documentation missteps, inconsistent enforcement across ports, and processing delays created bottlenecks that took months to resolve. The U.S. may now be facing its own version of that administrative drag, but on a broader and potentially more fragmented scale.
A Familiar Challenge, But With New Stakes
Procurement teams are no strangers to regulatory curveballs. In the past five years alone, they’ve absorbed shocks from Brexit, pandemic-era lockdowns, raw material shortages, and shipping route upheavals. Many have developed strong muscle memory in responding to disruption—reworking sourcing strategies, building alternate supplier networks, and investing in real-time risk visibility.
But paperwork doesn’t scale as easily as systems do. Increased customs scrutiny, the removal of de minimis thresholds, and the growing complexity of ROOs mean even routine orders may now require additional documentation, compliance checks, or manual validation. This isn’t just about inconvenience—it’s about capacity. Teams already stretched thin by operational complexity now face a higher risk of error, delay, or non-compliance on a day-to-day basis.
Looking Ahead: Compliance as a Strategic Competency
If the last round of trade disruptions focused attention on sourcing agility, this one is putting compliance infrastructure under the spotlight. Procurement leaders would do well to assess whether their customs workflows are built for speed and scale, and whether their systems are integrated enough to track origin data at the level new rules demand.
That doesn’t mean doing everything in-house. It means ensuring that customs brokers, suppliers, and internal teams are aligned in how documentation is collected, verified, and shared—and that platforms used for source-to-pay or supply chain visibility can actually surface ROO-relevant data in real time.
The real risk often isn’t bad data—it’s mismatched data. When procurement, logistics, and customs teams work from different systems or assumptions, even accurate documentation can cause delays. Fixing that alignment may prove just as critical as managing tariff costs themselves.
The paperwork problem may not make headlines, but in the months ahead, it may be the silent factor that determines whether shipments move or stall. Tariffs may be paused, revised, or rescinded. But the operational drag of poorly managed compliance? That tends to stick around.
