Updates to Tariffs & Expansion of Shipping Options
Though import taxes (tariffs) represent an additional cost to customers, EMW Nuclear has been able to learn how to handle them effectively for the most seamless experience possible.
(March 23rd, 2026) — The last year has been an eventful one in the world of logistics, one that I have come to know personally as Operations Manager, being responsible for handling all of EMW Nuclear’s inbound and outbound shipments that connect our small base of operations in (currently sunny) northern Costa Rica to clients around the world. Often, I have had to sort out various spontaneous issues, but I can happily say that all such issues were, regardless of the headaches involved, solved. Overcoming those issues has proven a valuable learning experience in avoiding future ones, and in streamlining both our own experience and our clients' experience into the current, largely seamless process.
When we first created the EMW Nuclear online store in early 2025, our website builder (Squarespace) did not yet offer any way to apply tariffs uniformly or seamlessly. As a compromise, and to avoid issues, we implemented tariffs as a sales tax, manually state-by-state, for the United States. Though this served its function in ensuring we were paid the duties we would then pay to our shipper on the client’s behalf, this solution came with its own complications. Namely, we had no way to label it as an import rather than sales tax, which could have caused confusion for our tax-exempt clients in healthcare and education. Though we were able to work through such issues, it brought our attention to the inadequacy of this workaround, and like many other businesses using the Squarespace platform, we pushed for better solutions to handle it.
New Tariff Implementation
Our new iteration of tariff incorporation has been enabled by Squarespace, adding a handling fee option to shipping fulfilment profiles, allowing us to add different handling fees for different countries and regions. This amount is based on the value of the goods and automatically added to the shipping cost rather than being displayed separately as a tax. We felt this was the best compromise between transparency (as we did not wish to hike prices and not disclose the cause, and as tariffs do not affect all clients equally) and minimising headache for institutional buyers that may otherwise run into issues were it shown as a ‘tax’.
For our United States-based clients, the current rate is 15%. Though the previous IEPPA tariffs were ruled out by the US Supreme Court, they have since been replaced with new tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act. EMW Nuclear has priced the shipping options themselves, so we partially subsidise their cost to help US clients recoup some of the cost through savings elsewhere in the transaction.
New Shipping Options (Express, Overnight, etc)
As some clients have expressed interest in expedited shipping options, we have expanded our shipping offerings to include the entire FedEx service tier range, from International Connect Plus to International Priority. For those with an immediate need for spare parts, this may be quite useful.
Bill-to-client Shipping
This will be elaborated on with its own page in the near future, but is included here for posterity and visibility. EMW Nuclear can waive shipping and handling costs and invoice directly through our payment processor via email, provided that the client has a FedEx account number, and wishes to take on the responsibility themselves rather than having EMW Nuclear do so on their behalf. EMW Nuclear will still provide all necessary electronic trade documents to make the process as seamless as possible for the client, regardless of whether EMW is handling the shipping and importation costs or not.