US importers pay record $16.5 billion as April tariff bill lands

The Treasury data don’t break out tariff revenue by category, and also include some excise taxes collected by the Department of Homeland Security.

Daily revenue from US customs duties rose to a record $16.5 billion as American importers made monthly payments to the government for goods received in April.

That revenue, disclosed in Treasury Department data released Friday, reflects the full impact of President Donald Trump’s new universal tariffs for the first time. About two-thirds of importers pay customs duties in one monthly sum, the month after goods arrive in US ports, and the deadline for April payments was Wednesday.

If tariffs continue at the present rate, the data suggest that Trump will fall short of the $2 billion a day in tariff revenue he’s counting on to help pay for the record tax cuts included in a bill passed by the House of Representatives this week.

But Trump’s tariff goals are also a moving target. The president threatened a new round of tariffs on Friday, including 50% on goods imported from the European Union and 25% on Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. if the smartphone makers fail to move manufacturing to the US.

He’s also threatened retaliatory tariffs on most of the world, but paused collections for 90 days amid a selloff in US Treasuries.

The new levies being collected consist mostly of a 10% baseline tariff for most of the world, a 25% duty on steel and aluminum, and 25% on autos. The tariff rate on China was about 20% when Trump took office, hit a high of 145% and is now 51%.

The Treasury data don’t break out tariff revenue by category, and also include some excise taxes collected by the Department of Homeland Security.

With monthly collections for April now accounted for, the Treasury will bring in at least $22.3 billion in customs duties and other excise taxes this month, the data show. Measured in dollar terms rather than as a share of GDP, that would be a monthly record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.