THE DAILY

Thursday, June 18, 2026

The five minutes that makes you the most informed person in freight today

The Daily

New tariffs are already on deck. Importers won’t catch a break in late July.

The Section 122 duties are set to expire July 24. Don’t plan a party. Customs and trade experts at Flexport spent Tuesday’s webinar walking importers through why a new round of forced-labor tariffs is positioned to land first, keeping trade costs elevated even as the current legal architecture winds down.

The proposed program is a Section 301 action targeting countries the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has determined lack adequate forced-labor enforcement. Under the current structure, 13 countries plus the EU face a 10% tariff; 46 additional countries would pay 12.5%. That is a far wider geographic sweep than the original China-focused Section 301 duties that defined the first Trump trade war, and it raises a legal question that Flexport flagged directly: opponents will argue that imposing tariffs on roughly 99% of U.S. import value stretches congressional intent well past what the statute’s text can support. The Supreme Court’s “major questions” doctrine, the same principle courts have used to clip agency overreach on environmental and healthcare rules, could become a live issue here. Public comments close July 6. A hearing follows July 7. Flexport expects the tariffs to be in place before Section 122 sunsets on July 24.

The USMCA angle deserves its own paragraph. July 1 marks the scheduled review milestone for the agreement, and the short version is: don’t expect a deal. “The July 1 deal is looking unlikely, but benefits continue,” said Marcus Eeman, director of customs at Flexport, noting that USMCA preferences would remain in effect even without a new agreement. The sticking points are familiar: the U.S. wants stronger U.S.-specific labor content rules in automotive, and Canada and Mexico want Section 232 relief on steel and aluminum. Neither side is close to giving the other what they want. For shippers with Mexico or Canada exposure, the practical read is that USMCA-qualified goods remain the best tariff protection available. The new forced-labor Section 301 framework explicitly exempts USMCA-qualified products, which makes getting that classification right more important than ever.

On the IEEPA refund front, the process is moving despite the government’s appeal of the Court of International Trade’s nationwide refund order. CBP has accepted nearly $95 billion in refund claims and transmitted $23.68 billion to Treasury. More than 10.6 million entries have been liquidated or reliquidated. Phase 2 of the Customs Automated Processing Engine launches June 29, expanding to reconciliation entries. Phase 3, which covers finally-liquidated entries, comes later this summer. The government is arguing that broad relief shouldn’t apply to entries already finally liquidated, which creates uncertainty for older claims. Watch the Phase 2 launch closely.

So What? Summer is not bringing tariff relief. Importers who built Q3 budgets around Section 122 expiration need to revisit those models now. The forced-labor Section 301 framework covers 59 countries, so audit your country-of-origin exposure before July 6 if you plan to submit comments. USMCA qualification is your best available tariff shield. Work with your customs broker to make sure you’re maximizing it. And get your reconciliation entries ready for the June 29 Phase 2 CAPE launch if you have outstanding IEEPA refund claims.

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Top Stories

C.H. Robinson named in first major broker liability case since Montgomery ruling

A Florida estate has sued C.H. Robinson in connection with a fatal August 2025 crash in St. Lucie County, in what is shaping up as one of the first high-profile post-Montgomery broker liability cases in the country. Driver Harjinder Singh attempted an illegal U-turn across Florida’s Turnpike, killing three people in a minivan. Singh was in the U.S. illegally at the time. C.H. Robinson’s opening defense is categorical: the company says carrier White Hawk, which employed Singh, was not an approved carrier in its system and had not moved a shipment for the broker since January 2024. “We also have no record of this shipment being brokered by C.H. Robinson,” said Chief Legal Officer Dorothy Capers. The Transportation Intermediaries Association has already asked FMCSA to begin a rulemaking process to clarify what constitutes a defensible standard for carrier selection in the post-Montgomery world.

So What? The Montgomery ruling stripped brokers of the F4A preemption defense in every jurisdiction. This Florida case, brought against the industry’s largest broker and the same company that led the failed SCOTUS defense, will set the first major evidentiary and procedural precedents in the post-ruling era. Watch the liability standards that emerge here. They will define what “reasonable care in carrier selection” looks like in a courtroom for the entire brokerage industry.

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Cassandra Gaines releases 54-page carrier vetting standard for post-Montgomery brokers

Carrier Assure CEO Cassandra Gaines formally released The CAVRA Standard this week, a publicly available 54-page framework covering carrier assessment, verification, risk and accountability. More than 800 transportation professionals attended the launch webinar. The standard was built to answer the industry’s most urgent post-Montgomery question: what does a reasonable, defensible carrier-selection process actually look like? CAVRA goes well beyond confirming operating authority and insurance, calling for safety data review, fraud indicators, identity verification, double-brokering controls and escalation procedures for elevated-risk situations. Gaines made the framework public rather than proprietary. “Good brokers deserve a clear standard,” she said.

So What? FMCSA rulemaking could take years. Until then, CAVRA is the closest thing the industry has to a shared benchmark. Any broker or shipper that doesn’t already have a documented, written carrier-vetting policy should download this framework today and get legal counsel involved. A plaintiff attorney in a post-Montgomery case will ask whether you had one.

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How hackers stole $1.7M in freight from a shipper that thought it was vetting properly

A phishing email to a legitimate carrier was all it took. Hackers allegedly gained access to the carrier’s credentials and internal systems, then impersonated the carrier to secure a Walmart-bound load of 103,000 units of ONE Condoms worth roughly $1.7 million from Global Protection Corp.’s Lynn, Massachusetts, warehouse in April. The criminals then hired legitimate independent drivers through a DAT listing, provided correct shipment numbers and paperwork at pickup, and redirected the trucks to a Bronx warehouse mid-transit. “We believed we were verifying properly, but this incident has led us to create additional verification measures,” said Ryan Findling, director of operations at Global Protection. The FBI confirmed an arrest has been made but did not tie it directly to this shipment. Products have not been recovered. The FBI also noted food and beverage was the most-stolen commodity category in 2025, up 47% year-over-year.

So What? The Global Protection case is a template for exactly how sophisticated cyber-enabled cargo theft works in 2026. The carrier whose identity was stolen never even knew the load existed. Evidence had been scrubbed from its email. Requiring power unit number, driver name and driver phone number on the BOL before freight is released, then verifying identity at pickup, won’t stop every scheme, but it eliminates the easiest attack vectors. Urgency is the criminal’s tool. Slow your release process down.

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U.S. and Iran set to sign 14-point MOU Friday; Strait of Hormuz could reopen within 30 days

U.S. and Iranian leaders are scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding in Switzerland on Friday that would end active hostilities, reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic within 30 days, and allow Iran to resume crude oil exports immediately. The accord also commits to 60 days of negotiations toward a final deal on Iran’s nuclear program. The stakes are large: the strait carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, and its closure earlier this year drove emergency SPR releases that pushed the U.S. reserve to approximately 340.25 million barrels, its lowest level since 1983. If the MOU holds and the strait reopens on schedule, diesel and jet fuel prices should ease, insurance war-risk premiums should fall, and tankers rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope can return to normal lanes. The 60-day negotiating window is the critical variable. If talks collapse, the ceasefire and the Hormuz reopening could unravel with them.

So What? Friday’s signing is a beginning, not a conclusion. The mine-clearing alone takes time. Review your contracts now for fuel surcharge triggers and force majeure clauses tied to Middle East disruption. Relief from those provisions won’t flow automatically just because an MOU gets signed. The SPR is at a historically exposed level heading into hurricane season, so any new disruption in the next 60 days lands in a thinner buffer than normal.

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From the Research Desk

From Our Partners

What We’re Watching

▸ IEEPA Phase 2 launch on June 29. CBP opens reconciliation entries to the refund process in less than two weeks. If you have outstanding IEEPA duties on reconciliation entries, your window to act is now. Phase 3 covers finally-liquidated entries and follows this summer, but the government’s appeal means that timeline is uncertain.

▸ How C.H. Robinson’s “we didn’t broker it” defense holds up in discovery. FMCSA’s SAFER system shows White Hawk as “active but not authorized.” C.H. Robinson says the carrier was deactivated in its system in early 2024. Whether plaintiff attorneys can establish a connection will define how brokers document carrier deactivation across the industry.

▸ Friday’s MOU signing and the first 30 days of Hormuz reopening. The physical process of clearing mines and repositioning tankers takes time. Watch tanker rates and war-risk insurance premiums as leading indicators of whether the strait is genuinely reopening or whether the MOU is stalling at implementation. A second disruption during the 60-day negotiating window lands in an SPR that has never been thinner in the modern era.

That’s your Daily for today. See you tomorrow.

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