Import from China

When I first started writing about international shipping more than 15 years ago, a rollercoaster was the best metaphor to describe the industry, with its volatile, up-and-down freight rates for [...]

Do you know what country is the number one trading partner for the U.S.? It’s not China. It’s not Canada…. 2026 marks the third consecutive year that Mexico is the United [...]

Import fraud enforcement is at an all-time high. Consider following: Why the Crackdown? Large factors in government enforcement increases on tariff evasion and import fraud are the creation of [...]

Summit Delay Request Many refer to the current trade deal with China as a trade truce. Shippers would be forgiven for thinking of it as tenuous after the tension of escalating tariffs of trade [...]

2025 is drawing to a close, and that means it’s time to look back at the Top 10 Universal Cargo blog posts of the year! It’s always a fun exercise to count down the top 10 – David [...]

This is a guest post by James Burk. U.S. businesses import products to scale operations, but the border presents significant challenges. U.S. Customs and Border Protection enforces strict rules. [...]

Universal has an acronym that spells out our core values: C.A.R.E. Those values are Customers, Available, Resourceful, and Evolving. In the spirit of evolving to be even more available to serve [...]

This is a guest post by Ellie Gabel. Because of China’s enormous supplier base, well-developed logistics network and production expertise, it has been the centerpiece of global supply [...]

Universal Cargo’s blog was going to publish a guest post today, but then big international shipping news hit late last night/early this morning. President Trump and President Xi JinPing [...]

Air Freight Surge A couple weeks ago, the trade war between the U.S. and China escalated. China announced export controls expansions and President Trump responded with a threat of increasing [...]

Last week, the U.S.–China trade war, which has seemed pretty tranquil of late, escalated. China Expands Export Controls on Rare Earths On Thursday (October 9th), Beijing announced new measures to [...]

A cyclone shut down operations at ports and airports in Southern China and Hong Kong the last couple days, likely causing up to a week (in some cases possibly more) in delays for shippers [...]

There’s some good news for shippers’ bottom lines where many were worried. Next month, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) will start collecting fees on China-built ships [...]

Today, August 12th, was the deadline for the tariff pause between the U.S. and China. Without a new deal or extension, tariffs between the countries were set to soar back to embargo-like numbers: [...]

Last week, we looked at three potential trade deals: one likely, one unlikely, and one iffy to happen before the August 1st tariff hike deadline. India came in as the likely deal to happen. Less [...]

President Trump extended the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for countries other than China. But not for long. Today was supposed to be the last day of the pause before the "Liberation Day" [...]

I’m on a little vacation this week, so there won’t be the normal Tuesday and Thursday Universal Cargo blog. Don’t worry. The Universal Cargo team is still here to take care of [...]

Trans-Pacific freight rates, particularly from China to the U.S. West Coast (USWC), fell significantly this week. In fact, some reports show China to USWC freight rates dropped by about a third [...]

Universal Cargo's blog post on Tuesday was about what's happening with America's trade deal negotiations with China and India. Apparently, that post came one day too early. Yesterday morning, [...]

This year, tariff changes have been a major thing to deal with for businesspeople who import goods from Asia. Many are hoping for the Trump Administration to complete trade deals soon to bring [...]