Arizona Tribune - Tariffs Are Getting Expensive-SMX Ensures They're Paid In Truth

When designed and enforced properly, tariffs can serve a productive role. They can support strategic sectors, reinforce regional standards, and rebalance markets distorted by cost or compliance differences. But for tariffs to function as intended, the systems that enforce them must be just as precise and proportionate as the policies themselves.

That's where enabling technologies like SMX (Security Matters) (NASDAQ:SMX) come in. Not as policy-makers or enforcers-but as infrastructure providers, supplying the kind of traceability tools that help regulators, customs agents, and compliant producers operate on equal footing. If the global trading system is going to rely more heavily on tariff-based accountability, then it also needs the ability to verify claims not just on paper, but in the product itself.

And that begins by matching good policy with systems built to support it.

Good Policy Needs Functional Infrastructure

The global trade system is evolving-and in many ways, progressing. Governments are modernizing customs operations. New mechanisms, like the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), are tying tariffs to environmental metrics. Industry groups are pushing for better reporting and sourcing standards.

These steps matter. But enforcement still hinges on paper trails-certificates, declarations, documentation that, while necessary, are often disconnected from the physical goods they represent. Even with the best intentions, these records can be lost, altered, or forged along the way.

That's not a policy failure-it's a systems gap. And it's exactly where SMX offers reinforcement.

By embedding molecular-level markers directly into raw materials and finished goods-including metals, textiles, agriculture, electronics, and more-SMX enables materials to carry their own verifiable identity. These markers are invisible to the eye, but remain embedded throughout the product's lifecycle, making origin, composition, and movement instantly and reliably verifiable.

It doesn't replace documentation. It simply ensures the physical product still tells the same story.

Tariff Policy Only Works When Claims Can Be Proven

Tariffs aren't about punishment-they're about fairness. They exist to ensure that trade is conducted on level terms, especially when labor, environmental, or regulatory standards differ across regions.

But even well-structured tariffs are vulnerable to manipulation if verification tools don't evolve alongside them. Goods get rerouted. Origins get obscured. Declarations get massaged to fit lower-duty categories.

These aren't isolated incidents-they're recurring challenges in nearly every trade system. And they happen not because of malicious policy-but because enforcement often ends at the border paperwork.

That's why traceability infrastructure matters. SMX doesn't tell anyone what tariffs should be. But if tariffs are the framework, then SMX provides the silent layer of verification that helps keep it fair-from extraction to export, and everywhere in between.

SMX Isn't the Decision-Maker-It's the System Support

Let's be clear: SMX doesn't advocate for trade barriers, incentives, or political agendas . It doesn't generate policy. It doesn't calculate duties. And it doesn't create the data that regulators use.

What it does is simple-and essential: it provides a trusted, tamper-proof method to verify claims that already exist, making trade policy more enforceable without adding friction.

When governments set the rules, SMX provides a way to confirm compliance. When producers do the right thing, SMX provides a way to prove it. And when customs officials are tasked with enforcing complex regulations, SMX gives them more than paperwork-it gives them clarity.

Because every country approaches trade differently. But if fairness is the shared goal, then traceability has to be the shared language.

SMX isn't the headline. It's the backbone. And if tariff policy is going to be the lever that reshapes global trade, systems like SMX will be what makes it work.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intends," "may," "will," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company's fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company's stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX's joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of gold, steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX's strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX's ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX's ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX's ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX's product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX's business model; developments and projections relating to SMX's competitors and industry; and SMX's approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company's shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX's business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX's products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SMX (Security Matters)

EMAIL: [email protected]

Sources and references:

• https://www.cbp.gov/trade#:~:text=CBP%20Trade%20Enforcement%20%2D%20Operational%20Approach,fair%20and%20competitive%20trade%20environment

• https://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/new-tariffs-on-vietnamese-exports-analyzing-the-new-tariff-framework.html/

• https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/carbon-border-adjustment-mechanism_en

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-22/trump-targeting-trade-loopholes-risks-70-of-china-exports-to-us

• https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF10156

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

Ch.Campbell--AT