Donald Trump promised to slash red tape for business. His tariff regime has gotten American companies increasingly tangled up in it.

The president’s ever-changing trade rules are piling up mountains of extra work for firms trying to follow them. Smaller ones in particular are struggling to cope with unprecedented requirements to trace paper trails for every widget and gadget, showing what’s in them and where they came from.

The bureaucratic burden is a less-discussed consequence of Trump’s move to hike import taxes to a hundred-year high. America Inc., which broadly cheered his election win, is already bristling at the direct cost of tariffs. Uncertainty around their on-again, off-again rollout is a drag on investment plans, too. The challenges of compliance add another layer of hurt.

O

See Full Page