Section 301 Investigations 2026: Hearings Start May 5 and July 24 Will Change Everything
On March 11 and March 12, 2026, the Office of the United States Trade Representative launched two of the most consequential sets of trade investigations in a generation. The first of the Section 301 investigations 2026 targets 16 major economies for structural manufacturing overcapacity. The second of the Section 301 investigations 2026 targets 60 economies […]
Section 122 Tariff 2026: The Complete Importer’s Guide to the 10% Global Surcharge
On February 20, 2026, the US Supreme Court ruled in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that IEEPA does not authorise the President to impose tariffs. Within hours, the White House invoked an entirely different legal authority: Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Effective February 24, 2026 at 12:01 AM EST, a 10% ad […]
Multi-Cloud AI Infrastructure Import Compliance: The Complete Guide for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Deployments
On March 16, 2026, AWS announced at NVIDIA GTC that starting in 2026 it will deploy more than one million NVIDIA GPUs, including Blackwell and Rubin architectures, across its global cloud regions. Reuters confirmed on March 19, 2026, that NVIDIA plans to deliver this quantity to Amazon’s cloud division by end of 2027. Those one […]
HS 2028: The Harmonized System Update Every Importer Must Prepare For Now
The World Customs Organization has formally adopted the next edition of the Harmonized System. HS 2028 enters into force on January 1, 2028, bringing 299 sets of changes to the classification framework that underpins every customs declaration, duty calculation, and free trade agreement eligibility determination made by over 200 economies worldwide. For HS 2028 importers, […]
US De Minimis Exemption Suspended 2026: What Every Importer and E-Commerce Seller Must Do Now
The US de minimis exemption has been suspended. Since August 29, 2025, every commercial shipment entering the United States, regardless of value, regardless of country of origin, and regardless of shipping method, is subject to formal customs entry, 10-digit HTS classification, and full duty payment. The $800 threshold that allowed 1.36 billion packages to enter […]
Importer of Record vs Customs Broker: What’s the Difference and Why It Matters
The most expensive mistake in international trade compliance is not a wrong tariff code or a missing certificate. It is assuming that a customs broker and an importer of record are the same thing. They are not, and the difference carries legal and financial consequences that most businesses only discover after a shipment is held, […]
How to Ship IT Hardware into Brazil Without a Local Legal Entity
Brazil is the largest IT hardware market in Latin America and one of the most structurally complex customs environments in the world for foreign companies. The core problem is this: a foreign company without a Brazilian-registered entity and a CNPJ tax registration number cannot obtain a RADAR licence from the Receita Federal, and without RADAR […]
EU CBAM 2026: How Carbon Border Rules Are Changing Export Costs and Trade Routes
The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its definitive phase on January 1, 2026. After a three-year transitional period of reporting-only obligations, EU CBAM 2026 now carries real financial consequences for every business exporting steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity, or hydrogen into the European Union. The European Commission published the first quarterly CBAM certificate price […]
Importing NVIDIA H200 Servers Outside the US: IOR, Tariff and BIS Compliance Guide
Importing NVIDIA H200 servers outside the US involves three separate compliance layers that most procurement teams manage sequentially when they should be managing simultaneously. The first is US export controls under the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which determine whether the H200 can leave the United States for your destination country and under what […]
Chip Security Act 2026: What It Means for AI Hardware Importers and Data Centre Operators
Chip Security Act 2026 passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a unanimous 42-0 vote on March 26, 2026. It now heads to the full House for consideration. It has not been enacted yet. But for AI hardware importers, data centre operators, and cloud service providers that hold export-controlled GPU infrastructure outside the United States, […]