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I built a tariff API because USITC data lags executive orders by days

I built a tariff API because USITC data lags executive orders by days

by PowMan·Apr 7, 2026·2 points·0 comments
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AI Analysis

●●SolidSolve My ProblemNiche Gem

IEEPA overlay tracks executive orders faster than USITC publishes them.

Strengths
  • •Wire-protocol parsing from official USITC REST API, no fragile HTML scrapers.
  • •Nightly diffs with webhook delivery before customers notice rate changes.
  • •Three countries, one schema—absorbs format shifts so integrations don't break.
Weaknesses
  • •$199/mo pricing puts it out of reach for small teams and indie developers.
  • •Tariff API category already has established players like Avalara and Thomson Reuters.
Category
Data
Target Audience

Trade compliance teams, logistics software developers

Similar To

Avalara · Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE · Descartes Systems

Post Description

The April 2nd "Liberation Day" executive orders still aren't in the Federal Register as of today. That gap — between White House announcement and official publication — is exactly the problem TradeFacts.io was built around.

TradeFacts is a JSON API serving: - US HTS data (35,838 codes) with Chapter 99 IEEPA overlay rates - Canadian Customs Tariff (22,461 codes, 19 CUSMA preferential treatment columns) - Mexico TIGIE (8,183 fracciones arancelarias, post-Jan 2026 reform rates) - Nightly diffs with webhook delivery on changes - An IEEPA overlay system that monitors the Federal Register every 4h and flags provisional rates separately from the base HTS data

The overlay is the part I'm most interested in feedback on. When an executive order imposes a new Chapter 99 rate, the USITC takes days to weeks to publish it. I built a separate overlay layer — monitored independently via the FR API with AI-assisted extraction — so the provisional rate is available immediately with full provenance (FR document number, effective date, rate status clearly marked PROVISIONAL).

The alternative for most developers right now is scraping CBP's CSMS bulletins manually or polling the USITC and hoping the update landed.

Free 30-day trial, no credit card: https://tradefacts.io API docs: https://docs.tradefacts.io

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