What happened
US customs enforcement on cross-border cargo has tightened sharply, as reported by Canadian Manufacturing. Customs brokers told the publication that screening and penalties have risen alongside the tariffs. One Vancouver-based broker said requests for documentation on the goods she ships are up tenfold from several years ago.
The numbers point the same way. US Customs and Border Protection audits are on track to grow 26 per cent this year over 2024. By late July, US customs had collected US$70.6 million in trade penalties in the first half of the year, up 169 per cent from all of 2024 and 53 per cent from all of 2025.
The paperwork asked of importers is also getting heavier. Where a certificate of origin, bill of lading and invoices once did the job, importers may now be asked for sourcing records that trace parts and materials, plus production papers showing where goods were assembled. They can have hours to respond, or up to 30 days. Brokers say a penalty can cover years of violations, even for a breach the importer did not know about, such as a change in a component's country of origin.
Why it matters if you are hiring
For Canadian manufacturers that ship to the US, compliance is now an operations job as much as a legal one. The records customs asks for sit in purchasing, production, quality and HR, not in one office.
That changes which roles matter. Trade compliance specialists and customs coordinators are the obvious ones. Just as important are procurement staff who can track where each component comes from, and production or quality supervisors who keep batch and labour records clean enough to hand over in hours. Logistics and shipping coordinators also need to know what to do when a load is held at the port, since the brokers say more inspection decisions now happen there, at an officer's discretion.
The cost of getting this wrong is not abstract. Brokers describe warehouse charges in the thousands of dollars, drivers stuck over a weekend, spoilage and missed delivery windows. For food and perishable goods, that risk is sharper still. A supplier change that nobody flagged can turn into a multi-year penalty.
Expect competition for people with real customs and rules-of-origin experience. If you plan to hire, decide whether you need one dedicated person or a few existing roles with clearer duties.
One thing to do this week
Pick your top three US-bound products and test your records. Ask whether you could trace each one back to the origin of its parts and show where it was assembled, within one business day. Note every gap and who owns it. Those gaps are your hiring brief.
Traverse places operations and manufacturing people, from logistics and compliance coordinators to plant supervisors, so employers can fill the roles that keep product moving across the border.