• Trump's tariff reversal on Chinese goods has complicated the math for US importers.
• A week ago, delaying duty payments seemed smart — now, it may make sense to pay early.
• And then there's the issue of what to do with the surges of arriving inventory.

Just when US importers were starting to make sense of President Donald Trump's 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, the negotiator-in-chief changed the deal again.

Now, with the plans on pause and current import tariffs dropping down from 145% to 30% for China, importers are having to rethink how — and when — they bring goods into the US, according to Ben Dean, VP at warehousing network Flexe.

Tariffs are indeed a lot lower than they were last week, but they're still far higher than they have been for years, and there's no clear answers about which way they'll go in the next 90 days or beyond.

All of that has importers looking at an even wider menu of warehousing and transportation options than they were just a short while ago — if they're not biting the bullet and paying the tariffs outright.

Before Monday's announcement, the 145% tariffs on Chinese goods made for rather simple (if unpleasant) decision-making, since they were so high they effectively blocked all but the most essential products from crossing the Pacific.

For goods that were already en route, many businesses turned to a specialized type of storage facility, known as a bonded warehouse. These facilities allow importers to park their goods duty-free for up to five years, and only pay the tariff charge that is in effect at the time they accept their inventory.

"By holding the goods under bond, there's the possibility that they might pay at a lower rate," Dean said in a previous interview with Business Insider.

In a follow-up interview after the tariffs fell to 30%, Dean told BI that, as expected, interest in bonded warehousing has fallen precipitously — though not entirely.

Now, he said there's more interest in foreign-trade zones.

FTZs are somewhat similar to bonded facilities in the sense that they allow importers to delay payment of tariffs, but the key difference is that FTZ lock in the tariff rate at the time of arrival, rather than when the items leave the facility and officially enter the US.

"Should we not make progress on a formal agreement and in 91 days, rates shoot up again, that is a risk," Dean said.

At least now, "there's an upside risk, which we didn't have" before, he said.

Dean also said demand is up for trains and short-haul trucks, while long-haul trucking rates are comparatively down — an indication importers are trying to slow the roll of previously rushed inventory.

"The need for speed has gone away, and slower and more economical transportation modes are now coming into high demand," he said.

In other words, importers who brought inventory in ahead of tariffs are using the country's hundreds of miles of train tracks instead of actual warehouses to effectively hold their merchandise until it comes time to sell it.

For the impending surge of new shipments — container bookings are up nearly 300% between the US and China this week — Dean said there is ample warehouse capacity to receive it.

"The ports are trying to get their things in order to make sure that that surge can get off the ship," he said. "And everybody's seeking to avoid any kind of headline event like we had off the Port of Long Beach during the peak of COVID," when massive backlogs on the docks kept container ships lingering at anchor for weeks.

Even so, there could still be some capacity challenges at the West Coast ports in the coming weeks.

"We are — in real time — changing the economics of the cost of inventory," Dean said. "We're getting this real pilot to see what happens to our supply chain domestically when that happens."

• The popularity of a special type of duty-deferred warehousing skyrocketed in April.
• Inquiries and prices for bonded storage facilities are up sharply, Flexe told Business Insider.
• While the option has cash-flow benefits, it's not likely to solve importers' tariff challenges.

Think of it as hitting "snooze" on a shipment.

With the onset of President Donald Trump's trade war last month, many US importers are exploring all sorts of ways to delay the arrival of their goods while hoping that a more favorable deal is reached.

One suddenly popular option is the century-old concept of bonded warehousing, which has seen prices and inquiries skyrocket in recent weeks, according to Flexe, a network for storage facilities.

With bonded warehouses, arriving cargo is placed in a secure space where it is exempt from tariffs for up to five years — as though it hasn't yet officially entered the country.

"Bonded facilities within the US warehousing ecosystem exist as a duty-deferral option for businesses that are bringing goods stateside but don't necessarily need to consume them within a short period of time," Flexe's head of network, Ben Dean, told Business Insider.

In calmer periods of global trade, this looks like delaying the official arrival of inventory so the import costs are more closely timed to sales — and helps keep accountants happy.

"In a high-tariff environment, the value of deferral goes up, so immediately this increased demand," Dean added.

Dean said Flexe had received 19 requests for bonded warehouse space in the first four months of this year (largely in April), compared with two for the same period in each of the prior two years. Another four requests have already been made in May so far.

One partner Flexe works with in the Los Angeles area reported 60 proposals for its bonded space as of April 29, he added.

"There are shippers who are in a position that they don't believe the 145% tariff will hold maybe 30, 60, 90 days later, so by holding the goods under bond, there's the possibility that they might pay at a lower rate," Dean said, but he cautioned against that strategy.

"Making bets about where tariffs will be any point beyond today is a risky business to be in," he said.

In addition, bonded warehouses ordinarily charge more than conventional facilities anyway, and now prices are going up sharply.

Flexe manages pricing by the pallet, which earlier this year cost $17.50 a month to store in a normal warehouse.

"In the last week, I have seen bonded warehouses charging $5 per day," Dean said. That works out to about $150 per month, though some monthly contracts are priced closer to $52, he said.

Either way, Flexe's data shows that bonded storage is now three to nine times as expensive as what might be considered "normal."

"We're seeing a premium that's beyond anything I've seen in this space in my career," Dean said.

With rising costs and limited availability for bonded warehousing, Dean said importers were likely to turn to other solutions, such as ports in Mexico and Canada.

For retailers, storing inventory near the border could help them avoid duties until the uncertainty around consumer prices and demand is more settled.

Companies are more likely to pay the 145% tariff on an air fryer from China if they're confident that shoppers will actually buy it at a higher price, and it's beneficial to have products ready within a few hours or days via truck or train, rather than weeks on a ship.

Regardless of which option importers choose, the ongoing trade war means there are likely to be new costs that they didn't have to manage before.

"A lot of folks are looking at this as a panacea for tariffs," Dean said, "but there is none."

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