For a relatively modest fee (typically $80 to $300 per shipment), customs brokers play Virgil to the millions of items imported into the US every day, guiding them through an increasingly complicated terrain of shifting regulations, gyrating tariff rates and executive orders. It wasn’t always like this. Being a customs broker used to be a pretty straightforward, low-drama gig, says Lieberman, 37, who inherited the business from his father. Sure, there was the occasional emergency, such as the shipping container of crocodile meat that had to be sent back to Australia because of insufficient paperwork, but most nights he could make it home in time for dinner with his wife and two young children.