When I was still selling gear, 50% or better of my business was overseas and in Canada. At times, it was a pain to fill out the customs paperwork.
One thing that helped me was that many of my customers in Asia were on US military bases, and shipping to them was no different than sending it across town. But more than a few were not. I always took the time to find the regulations in the countries where I was shipping to and inform the buyer, as best I could, what they would be looking at, as far as customs, brokerage fees, duties, etc.
I did not always get it right on the nose but managed to get close. And I would often let them know to budget for a little extra. I sent to some places where the customer would let me know that if they paid a few bucks to the right person, it would get processed faster.
But hey, that's on them.
I would not want to do that now. I'm glad I'm out of the business. Tariffs are not small business friendly as I am hearing from friends who are still bringing in products. It's not so bad with the lines they carry that have distributors in the US. I know that HOG had to make adjustments to prices but the individual shops and instructors don't have to deal with the customs paperwork.
Other items, such as drysuits and items like Shearwater computers, are feeling the pain because the instructor or shop buys directly from the manufacturer.
Add to that, the uncertainty of what the tariff will be, in some cases day to day or week to week depending on the mood of a toddler with a dirty diaper, and they may have to eat a significant amount of money or pass it on to the customer. After they though they had paid in full.
I work in metals manufacturing and it's an uncertain time for the company. We don't know what the costs of materials will be weeks out. That used to be pretty stable. Some of the items we make have 3-month lead times. So there's a guessing game going on. We might quote the customer a price based on material costs now. And due to supply issues and our own storage capacity, we might need to wait two weeks to get a load of stainless in, and the price jumps. So our account execs need to go back to the customer and tell them that the quote was no good. This is the new one. Many understand. But a few have not and canceled significant orders.
And don't even get me started on the orders that are in production and then canceled because the trade agreement with that country was just flushed because of the same whims of that toddler.