Inside the Detroit warehouse where America’s ‘fast and furious’ tariffs are enforced

Skids of automotive parts are sitting ready for inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection inside a warehouse beside North America’s busiest border crossing.

These are shipments entering the United States from Canada inside of the thousands of trucks that cross the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., every day.

Holding a steel rod he’s pulled from a cardboard box, import specialist Marc Ballelli believes he’s found a problem.

“They will classify this as an auto part but this is a steel tube,” said Ballelli.

Whether it’s considered a steel product or an auto part can make a big difference, since there is a tariff on steel of 50 per cent, but Canadian-made auto parts are exempt from tariffs.

Ballelli will now start an investigative process that could trigger a financial penalty in addition to the proper tariff, which can be an expensive surprise to the company’s bottom line.

Canadian companies dealing with tariffs say the paperwork that import specialists face on both sides of the border was once a routine administrative task.

Now it’s a high-level priority occupying space on desks of the most senior employees.

Tariff paperwork becoming a full-time job

Kaycee Vasudeva owns automotive parts manufacturer Ultra-Form Manufacturing and blames the economic slowdown caused by tariffs for losing a customer.

It’s forced him to lay off a dozen employees while at the same time create two new jobs in his company just to deal with the paperwork.

“If I’m shipping it direct to USA and that’s what we do quite a bit, that’s what gives us the headache,” said Vasudeva, who has been making auto parts for 30 years.

He said the new roles are new costs needed “to make sure we really understand, with every line we put on the custom papers, to match what is required.”

On top of the expenses, said Vasudeva, are headaches and stress that come with trying to get clarity on what is the correct classification of a product crossing the border.

“This is the first time we are having this challenge of tariff and custom people bothering us,” said Vasudeava.

Between checking skids of dipsticks and other automotive parts, Ballelli and his colleagues will take calls in the office from people trying their best to get it right.

“I have companies that will call me and say, ‘Hey, what is the classification for this? This is how we have it classified currently,” said Ballelli.

He’ll go through the paperwork with the company and has, at times, corrected classifications that save the company money.

“So instead of paying 25 per cent, they’re ending up only have to pay 15 per cent.”