MONTREAL — Shippers say enforcement on cross-border cargo has ramped up enormously under the Trump administration, costing time and money.
As a tariff wall rises along the 49th parallel, transport industry insiders say freight screening and penalties have increased under a stricter approach to customs in a more protectionist United States.
Breanna Leininger, who heads U.S. operations at Vancouver-based Pacific Customs Brokers, says there’s been a “massive shift” among American border officials, with demands for documentation on the goods she ships up tenfold from three years ago.
She says that to prove compliance with product classifications, importers have to provide a longer trail of paperwork like labour and manufacturing records, with the degree of proof as well as the items tariffed seeming to change by the month.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show that the number of audits this year is on track to grow 26 per cent from 2024.
The ramped-up enforcement comes as Canada and America find themselves in an escalating trade war, with fresh rounds of tariffs fired off by both sides over the past several weeks.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2026.
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
