US companies are turning to their lawyers for help in containing the costs of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods from China, looking for legal loopholes to help avoid or reduce duties without shifting production to other countries.
Law firms and consultants say they are being inundated with requests for assistance from importers seeking to use provisions such as the “321 de minimis” rule, which allows goods worth less than $800 to be shipped to the US without being subject to tariffs.
Corporate advisers caution that the attempts to reduce costs are not without their risks. Money can be clawed back — and top executives held accountable — if US authorities clamp down on a particular tariff avoidance method, they say.