First sighting of Trump II tariff revenue surge

We finally get the first hint of the extra government revenues generated from US President Trump’s aggressive tariff policies.

• As shown in US Treasury’s April 22 Daily Treasury Statement, the US government received USD 11.7 billion in a single day from customer duties. That brings the accumulated custom duties for the month to USD 15.4 billion and USD 68.6 billion year-to-date.

Why were such a sizeable amount of revenues received at the border on this particular day? It is related to how importer and their brokers usually general pay custom duties.

• US Custom and Border Protection allows brokers and importers who are Automated Broker Interface (ABI) filers to pay their import duties for the whole month in one statement, the so-called Periodic Monthly Statements.
• Payment can be made no later than the 15th working day of the following month, i.e. custom duties for the whole March were due the 15th working day of April, which was the April 22.

So, the big jump we saw in the Daily Treasury Statement reflects mostly the tariff imposed in March, the “fentanyl-related” tariff targeting Canada, Mexico and China, but yet to include the ones announced since April 2, the so-called “Liberation Day”.