Clock Ticks Down Toward Sweeping Tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China

When President Trump announced last week that an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods would take effect on Tuesday, Logan Vanghele immediately called the logistics company that was handling a $120,000 shipment of aquarium products for his small business.

The cargo was on a ship en route to Boston from China. His message was clear: “Get this thing off the boat, please.”

Company executives and foreign officials are scrambling to avert the consequences of another tight deadline from Mr. Trump, who has threatened to put stiff tariffs on goods coming in from China, Canada and Mexico starting just after midnight Tuesday.

The president describes this as an effort to pressure those countries to stop the flow of deadly drugs and migrants to the United States. But Mr. Trump’s game of brinkmanship with America’s three largest trading partners is creating intense uncertainty for business owners.

That includes Mr. Vanghele, 28, who runs a small company that sells lighting and equipment for aquariums, all of which is made in China. He had no idea that the shipment — one of his biggest so far — could face such fees when it left Yantian Port in southeastern China in January, just days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. In a frantic effort to avoid paying roughly $25,000 in tariffs, Mr. Vanghele pleaded with the logistics firm last week to unload his container at a port in Norfolk, Va., where it stopped on Friday, instead of traveling on to Boston.

While it is possible that Mr. Trump’s new tariffs will include an exemption for goods that are already on the water, there is no guarantee.