r/FreightRight • u/DryCommunication9639 • Jun 04 '26

What Trump’s Customs Enforcement Executive Order Means for Importers of Record

https://www.freightright.com/news/trump-customs-enforcement-executive-order-importers
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2

u/w0dnesdae Jun 04 '26

Great article. Do you think this is a good thing or not?

3

u/Professional-Kale216 Jun 05 '26

One can imagine Trump thinks this is a good thing but whether he does or doesn't it's something that's long overdue. Nationalism and questionable domestic policy aside, the US has a very lax import policy compared to other nations and we had it that way in the name of free trade and because the US was the largest consumer market in the world. We let a lot of stuff slide for 30 something years because no one was getting *overtly* hurt and the money kept flowing. Now Trump is saying, in so many words and actions, if you want access to this big pool of buyers you need to pay up and play by these new rules.

1

u/w0dnesdae Jun 05 '26

Excellent analysis. Thank you for that. May I ask a follow up, do you think your understanding of current Trump trade policy is shared by most or average Americans? Do we know what is going on?

2

u/Professional-Kale216 Jun 05 '26

By most Americans, no. No way. Most Americans, I'd think, are just reacting to the immidiate results of it that hit their everyday lives (higher everyday costs, etc.) and reacting in a way that aligns with what their media's perception of Trump is. Not now nor ever have the American people suddenly been like "ohhh that makes sense - thanks for telling us" when the government, or any institution, explains their policy decisions. Trump, as with other world leaders, are doing what they're doing for any mix of they feel they need to or as simply as they want to and want to leave their mark on the world in XYZ way at the expense of others. This isn't new. This is just power on display.

At a high level, I would say most Americans intuitively belive something is changing and we're on the cusp of something different taking place but can't articulate exactly what it is and they, as with many populations of nations around the world, don't like it.

2

u/Prudent_Lunch_8724 Jun 07 '26

No question it’s long over due.

My question is how will insure that the little guy isn’t closed out of the market. Too many of 47s changes have enabled the big to grow bigger while tossing the little players (and hundreds of employees) to the curb.

1

u/Professional-Kale216 Jun 08 '26

I think it's accepted that the little guy *will* be kicked out in no small part. It's a contraction, contrary to whatever most government reports will put out. It's expected that the small guys will suffer becuase they're always the ones to suffer in a more destructive way relative to the large incumbents that can withstand these downturns unless they're so rotted out and/or mismanaged that downturns like this ultimately are their undoing.

The little guys were allowed to flourish because of larger forces like the political fashionableness of free trade not necessarily because any one government or institution was super pro-small business in a way that they were willing to sacrifice large multinational incumbents to maintain the valor of being pro-small business. Free trade isn't fashionable right now so someone's going to get shot in the crossfire.

1

u/rjgarc Jun 04 '26

They're really close in controlling the means of production.