I’m the Broker the Other Tools Tell You to Consult

Why I Started This Practice

For 13 years, I ran purchasing, logistics, and customs compliance for Aerzen USA — a global industrial manufacturer with complex international supply chains. I managed broker relationships, handled HTSUS classification, led C-TPAT validation to Tier II, and built the compliance controls that kept our imports clean.

After that, I moved into dedicated trade compliance roles — at West Pharmaceutical Services and CNH Industrial — where I deepened my work in tariff law analysis, classification governance, and the intersection of Section 301, Section 232, IEEPA, and AD/CVD programs.

In January 2026, I launched Welch Customs & Trade Advisory because I kept seeing the same problem: importers paying duties they don’t owe, using compliance tools that don’t separate IEEPA from 232, and relying on brokers who file mechanically without questioning whether the tariff even applies.

I built this practice to fix that. My approach starts with classification — not material assumptions, not country-of-origin shortcuts, not whatever the broker’s system defaults to. Get the classification right, and the tariff applicability, the duty exposure, and the refund eligibility all fall into place.

I also build tools. The IEEPA Refund Screener is a 9-tab, 521-formula Excel workbook I created because I needed it for my own client work — and realized every other broker and importer needed it too.