The Port of Oswego is prepared for any Trump Administration tariffs.
President-elect Donald Trump has promised a 25% tariff on goods coming from Canada. That would include aluminum, one of the biggest commodities that comes through the Port of Oswego. However, the creation of the Port’s Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) could blunt the impact of the tariffs, according to Port of Oswego Authority CEO Bill Scriber.
"What a foreign trade zone does is that instead of paying the tariff all at once over thousands of metric tons of aluminum at once, and that big chunk of change coming out of your corporate checkbook, if you will, you bring a ship of aluminum into the port, you put it in our Foreign Trade Zone, and as you use it, you pay only the portion of the tariff and duties on that particular truck," Scriber said. "So you talk about 92 tons of aluminum instead of thousands of metric tons at once."
Scriber said businesses like the idea of only paying a portion of a shipment at a time. The Authority created the FTZ after tariffs were imposed during the first Trump Administration. Scriber believes Oswego is the only FTZ port on Lake Ontario and said they’re ready for anything.
"Either way, we're going to receive aluminum, and either way, we're going to receive, it looks like, record amounts," Scriber said. "So, I would hope we don't have tariffs, but if we do, we're prepared."
