Henry Kelley, co-founder and president of BlueWind Technology and a licensed U.S. customs broker, sat down with We Don’t Color On the Dog to cut through the noise surrounding tariffs.
Customs Broker
Most people have never heard the term “customs broker,” but they play a critical role in keeping commerce moving. Kelley describes the profession as a hybrid of attorney, accountant, and trade expert.
- “Our job is to ensure that if you import a good, you should pay no more or no less than what customs says the tariff should be,” Kelley explained. It’s a high-stakes role. The licensing exam covers 7,000 pages of government regulations and typically sees a pass rate of just 15 to 20 percent. Kelley’s own exam? Only nine percent passed.
IEEPA Chaos
For the past year, the Trump administration relied heavily on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 to impose tariffs—sometimes announcing new rates on a Friday night, effective by Saturday morning.
- “People literally would pay one tariff on the same product at 7 a.m., and then it would change in the afternoon,” Kelley said. “There were a lot of systemic problems with how (President Trump) was administering these.”
The Supreme Court ultimately struck down the IEPA tariff mechanism, ruling that Congress never intended the 1977 law to serve as a tariff authority. But don’t expect relief yet. Within two hours of that ruling, the administration issued new orders under Section 122—a statute written in 1930 that was originally designed to address balance of payment issues and has never previously been applied.
- “I’m 100% sure a court will strike down the 122,” Kelley said, explaining that the U.S. has a trade imbalance with countries like China, not a payments imbalance, a legally significant distinction.
Who Actually Pays the Tariff?
Despite the political debate, the law is unambiguous.
- “The importer of record pays the tariff. American companies are paying these tariffs, period,” he said. “That is not a political statement, that is a statutory requirement.”
While businesses can negotiate cost-sharing arrangements with foreign suppliers, the legal burden falls squarely on U.S. importers—costs that inevitably flow to consumers.
The Hidden Tariff Timing Trick
One of the most eye-opening revelations involves when a tariff is actually triggered. Goods don’t legally “enter” the United States when they come off a ship; they enter when they leave the port. That distinction has fueled a surge of interest in inland ports, including discussions right here in Pensacola.
- “The largest port in the United States is in Oklahoma,” Kelley noted, explaining how retailers like Walmart and Target route Christmas merchandise through inland ports months in advance, holding goods in tariff-free limbo until needed.
For Pensacola, this concept could be transformative, expanding effective port capacity without adding physical space, while offering local businesses a strategic tariff buffer.
What’s Coming Next
Kelley expects courts to eventually strike down Section 122, but in the meantime, the administration has launched numerous Section 232 and 301 investigations that could yield new, legally durable tariffs by this summer.
- “Tariffs are going to be with us for a while,” he said.
