Featured Headlines:

• Apparently, Herbert Hoover is back in fashion, which is terrific news for vacuum jokes and somewhat less encouraging for international trade with the United States.
• Through Executive Order 14411 (to say nothing of 301, 232, and 338), the White House continues to build its protectionist wall around American industry. Meanwhile, CBP is quietly working on the plumbing required to enforce it (keep reading for more on that in our Regulatory section), exploring dramatically greater visibility into who made an imported product, where it came from, what foreign Customs were told about it, and where its raw materials originated.
• Nothing changes tomorrow. CBP’s new Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is essentially a 64-question fishing expedition before formal regulations are written. But the direction of travel is unmistakable: more supply-chain parties identified, more foreign documentation, earlier filing, more reconciliation of foreign and U.S. data, and potentially AI-enabled tracing deep into production networks.
• Look, we know that strict enforcement is not a tariff, but it is protectionism, plain and simple.
• This all comes as brokers are already being pushed toward substantially greater importer validation. Our own new (perfect!) procedures now emphasize a simple operational standard: verify, corroborate, document and escalate, while specifically avoiding turning the Customs broker into a gumshoed private investigator.
• There is a certain irony here. We are erecting an increasingly sophisticated enforcement machine to protect American manufacturing without articulating an equally sophisticated plan to reinvent American manufacturing. Where is the corresponding national strategy for robotics, additive manufacturing, AI-driven production, advanced materials and highly automated factories?
• Hoover learned the harder lesson. Smoot-Hawley raised tariffs to historic levels (well, at least at that time) in an attempt to protect domestic producers. Other countries retaliated, international trade seized up, and American exporters became collateral damage. The Senate’s historical account is unusually undiplomatic: “the high tariff proved to be a disaster.”
• Tariffs can protect a factory. They cannot invent the next factory. And requiring importers to provide increasingly forensic evidence about everything entering America may make protectionism more enforceable, but it does not make it an industrial policy.
• The Hoover Administration at least had the decency to leave us a vacuum. Apparently, we kept ALL the attachments.
• And yes, before somebody emails us: Herbert Hoover had absolutely nothing to do with the Hoover vacuum cleaner. Wrong Hoover, admittedly. But Smoot-Hawley still sucked.

• Ocean carriers apparently aren’t satisfied with owning the ships anymore. Increasingly, they’re buying the docks too, with carrier-owned terminals now handling roughly 50% of major operators’ throughput and the deal count continuing to climb.
• The strategy makes plenty of sense. Vertical integration can cut costs, improve efficiency and turn an expense into another source of revenue. And after several extraordinarily profitable years, the carriers have plenty of cash to move their battleships around the board.
• History does offer a small warning before everybody starts buying Boardwalk. Industries have a habit of vertically integrating when times are good, only to discover that yesterday’s strategic asset has become tomorrow’s “non-core business” when conditions change.
• The interesting question is whether terminals are different. If carriers now view port infrastructure as fundamental to controlling their networks, these purchases may prove considerably stickier than previous rounds of vertical integration.
• There is also a shipper angle to Portopoly. Every terminal or chunk of capacity that moves under carrier control means a little less independent capacity in the marketplace. When networks tighten, fewer independent options can mean less leverage for everybody else at the table. Think of ports as those ugly red hotels.
• For now, the Big Five have the cash and scale to keep buying property. The question is how much of the board they ultimately want to own, and whether controlling more squares proves more valuable than simply collecting the freight.
• Just remember: in Portopoly, we’re pretty sure the shipper is the guy paying the rent.

• Global port congestion has quietly removed an extraordinary amount of vessel capacity from the market. Sea-Intelligence estimates 6.6% of the global fleet, roughly 2.3 million TEU, is effectively tied up by delays, up from 5% in June and about triple pre-pandemic levels.
• The pain is real. Schedule reliability fell to 56.4% in July, with late vessels averaging nearly a week behind schedule. Asia has been the principal culprit, as typhoons collided with already crowded terminals and all 14 major Asian ports tracked by Sea-Intelligence deteriorated during the month.
• But there is an awkward silver lining for ocean carriers: congestion is temporarily absorbing ships the market may soon have trouble absorbing itself. And when the congestion clears, carriers will still have an enormous orderbook arriving while a return to the Suez Canal would shorten Asia-Europe voyages and release even more effective capacity.
• For once, congestion isn’t merely the disease. It may also be the medicine.

• Oh say, can you CPSC….While you were out supporting the stars and stripes in honor of America 250, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was busy doing something slightly less celebratory and considerably more mandatory.
• In a patriotic nod to America, trade officials scheduled the CPSC certificate eFiling requirement to take effect on July 8, 2026. Now, with Labor Day upon us and Uncle Sam’s paid summer holiday weekends coming to an end, what better time to check whether the system is still gallantly streaming?
• Nearly two months into the rollout, the transition has been relatively smooth, with no major disruption to the flow of regulated consumer products. A few friction points remain, however, and brokers have been watching them unfold in real time—much like Francis Scott Key, but presumably with better Wi-Fi.
• By the dawn’s early…reply? Response times on CPSC support tickets remain a common complaint. When an entry problem requires agency assistance, a slow answer can leave brokers and importers staring anxiously at the ramparts—or, more accurately, the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).
• What so proudly we hailed is now rejected. Brokers are also seeing Partner Government Agency (PGA) rejections on filings containing identical data, sometimes without an accompanying error code, only for the shipment to later receive a “may proceed.” CPSC has reportedly advised brokers to disregard certain unexplained rejects when release follows, but normalizing the idea that some system rejections should simply be ignored is not exactly inspiring confidence in the flag—or the filing.
• Gave proof through ACE that the product was there. Some Reference PGA Message Sets are returning “Referenced Product not found” errors. CPSC has attributed these rejections to data-entry mistakes, but brokers report cases in which the Certificate Identifiers match the information supplied by the importer and stored in the Product Registry—and the shipment still ultimately receives a “may proceed.”
• CPSC’s own FAQ explains that the Product Registry is a stand-alone repository and does not automatically communicate with ACE. Importers must provide the correct Certifier ID, Product ID and Version ID to their brokers for the Reference PGA Message Set. Even so, a correct-looking reference that is rejected and then permitted to proceed leaves everyone wondering which part of the system saw what—and when.
• And the apparel’s red glare. Adult apparel continues to spark disagreement over the Flammable Fabrics Act. Some importers believe that a testing exclusion means the product is exempt from certification altogether, while CPSC maintains that covered products still require a certificate and that the applicable testing-exclusion code must be included. Apparently, the rockets are not the only things receiving close scrutiny for flammability.
• For now, importers should continue reviewing error messages, confirming Certificate Identifiers against the Product Registry and documenting any inconsistent responses. A “may proceed” may release the shipment, but it does not necessarily explain why the filing was rejected in the first place.
• Additional tools and official guidance are available through CPSC’s eFiling Resource Center, eFiling FAQ and Shapiro’s CPSC eFiling Resource Page.
• The rollout is still young, the system is still learning and the trade is still reporting what it sees. O say, does that error code yet wave?

• 867-5309 may be America’s most famous questionable phone number, but Form 5106 is about to become considerably more consequential.
• As covered extensively in this week’s feature, Executive Order 14411 is pushing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) toward much deeper importer verification. This particular provision deserves its own number, though, because the deadline is approaching—and CBP is preparing to disconnect Importers of Record (IORs) whose information does not check out.
• Form 5106 is used to create or update an importer’s identity with CBP. It captures the importer’s name, identification number, mailing and physical addresses, phone number and email address, along with optional information about business structure, beneficial ownership and company officers.
• Under the new enforcement push, that information must be accurate, complete and directly associated with the IOR. CBP wants to know exactly who it can turn to—and “Jenny from a number on the wall” is unlikely to survive validation.
• That means the physical address cannot belong to a registered agent, Customs broker, freight forwarder, business service center or unrelated third party. Brokers also cannot substitute their own phone numbers or email addresses for the importer’s. Apparently, “you can reach them through me” is no longer an acceptable communications strategy.
• Beginning September 18, 2026, CBP will immediately void an IOR number if it determines that the associated Form 5106 contains inaccurate or incomplete information. Once voided, the number becomes invalid for every purpose—including filing entries. No valid number, no entry. Please hang up and try your shipment again later.
• CBP will notify the importer using the most recent email address on file and explain how to request re-establishment of the number. Of course, if the email address is one of the inaccurate details that caused the problem, the notification process could become its own rather unfortunate punchline.
• Voiding the number may not be the end of the call. Intentional false statements, deception or fraud can bring additional penalties, while inaccurate information connected to duty-payment liability may also create False Claims Act exposure for the importer or associated individuals.
• Brokers are on the line as well. CBP says they must exercise due diligence, avoid transmitting information they know or should know is false or misleading, and maintain a valid Power of Attorney executed directly with the IOR. Inaccurate or invalid submissions may lead to broker penalties under 19 U.S.C. § 1641.
• Importers should review their existing Form 5106 data now, with particular attention to physical addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and identification numbers. Brokers should also make sure their verification procedures can substantiate the information they submit—not merely confirm that every field contains something.
• Full details are available in the official Federal Register Notice: Accuracy of Importer of Record Data Submitted to CBP. For broader context on Executive Order 14411, revisit Never Waste a Good Crisis | July 9, 2026 (Shap Talk).
• CBP has got your number. Starting September 18, it had better actually be yours.

When Ningbo blows and Shanghai rains,
The whole world feels supply-chain pains.

A typhoon lands, the vessels wait,
And Rotterdam starts running late.

Chicago sneezes. Hamburg cries.
A buyer in Baltimore asks “why?!”

The Panama Canal is open wide,
But somehow nothing moves inside.

For globalization’s dirty secret, you see,
Is frightening in its simplicity:

Two ports. Two cities. One-tenth of the boxes.
And Mother Nature knows exactly where the dock is.

• The U.S. and Iran have moved beyond threats and into direct military exchanges around the Strait of Hormuz, with Washington unveiling what amounts to a “tanker for tanker” policy. This is not generally considered a best practice in supply-chain management.
• Tuesday’s U.S. strikes reportedly hit roughly 100 Iranian targets, including air defenses, radar, minelaying equipment, communications facilities, anti-ship missile and drone launchers, plus two Iranian government tankers anchored off the coast.
• Iran responded with roughly 25 ballistic missiles and two dozen drones aimed at U.S. bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Erbil. Several missiles and drones targeting commercial traffic were reportedly intercepted.
• And yet, somehow, Hormuz kept Hormuzing. Roughly 40 vessels transited the strait Tuesday, moving millions of barrels of oil through a waterway surrounded by missiles, drones, warships, and people presumably reconsidering their career choices.
• That may be the most important point. The question is no longer simply whether Hormuz is open. It is what price shipowners, charterers, insurers, crews, and cargo interests demand to keep treating it as open.
• The strait already requires regular minesweeping, or “lawn mowing,” to remain safely navigable. When the lawn mower comes with naval escorts, the neighborhood has officially deteriorated.
• There is also an obscure but potentially enormous problem brewing in the freight markets. How do you price a tanker voyage when the benchmarks, especially risk assessments, are shifting almost by the hour? If insurers won’t play even for big pay, many owners will simply say, “No way!”
• So, amazingly, the ships are still sailing. The missiles are flying. The oil is flowing. And the freight market hasn’t quite decided how to price Armageddon.

• The Logbook Police Are Finally Reading the Logs
  • Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and apparently one of them was being driven by a guy whose electronic logbook wasn’t quite telling the truth. FMCSA has been on a remarkable ELD housecleaning spree, removing more than 90 electronic logging devices since January 2025 for failing to meet federal requirements.
  • The underlying weakness is rather extraordinary: ELD manufacturers self-certify that their devices comply with FMCSA standards. The agency is now testing that proposition rather more aggressively, removing devices that fail its technical requirements and forcing fleets to replace them.
  • The point of ELDs was to make hours-of-service records more accurate and harder to manipulate, helping ensure drivers actually get federally required rest. Or, as Frost almost certainly did not say: Good logs make good truckers.
  • And this is no poetic technicality. Once FMCSA revokes a device, carriers generally get 60 days to replace it, using paper logs or approved logging software in the meantime. Keep using the revoked device after the deadline and the driver can be placed out of service. Truck parked. Freight stuck. And miles to go before we sleep.
  • The woods are lovely, dark and deep. The compliance department, considerably less so.

• East Coast Ports Are Having a Moment, and Not the Good Kind
  • Spot drayage rates at several East and Gulf Coast ports are climbing sharply, with Norfolk reportedly up 23% and Savannah up 19% year-over-year.
  • Import volumes aren’t helping. Savannah reportedly logged 1,000 to 1,500 additional daily truck transactions in late July versus June, which is a fairly effective way to turn a busy port into a parking lot with cranes.
  • Chassis are getting harder to find as well, with longer street dwells and more equipment stuck out of service. That is pushing some shippers toward carriers with their own chassis rather than rolling the dice on increasingly stressed shared pools.
  • And there is a new wrinkle in carrier selection. In May, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that freight brokers can face state negligent-selection claims when they allegedly choose unsafe motor carriers. Translation: “But they were the cheapest guy on DAT” is not much of a legal strategy.
  • That ruling should put even more emphasis on carrier vetting at exactly the moment capacity is tightening. Fewer acceptable carriers, fewer available chassis, more boxes and higher rates are not exactly the ingredients for a soothing afternoon at the port.
  • The boxes keep coming, the chassis do stray, the rates go up. We dray, and we pray.