Kayla Gaston ’26, an economics and international business double major, has spent her summer navigating the murky waters of multinational corporate trade. As one of KPMG’s international tax trade and customs interns, she gives a variety of clients the advice they need to come out on top during industrial negotiations.
While her help is sometimes provided behind the scenes — drafting contracts that admit new clients to KPMG’s network, amending contracts to ensure established clients’ needs are being met, or researching customs valuation and classification standards that keep them informed about current prices — it often takes the form of risk analyses that show companies how they can improve supply chain documentation.
Records created based on these suggestions, which Gaston formulates almost every day, allow companies to pay lower import duties based on the principle of first sale: even if they’ve passed through a middleman, products that haven’t been altered since leaving the factory floor are only subject to duties based on their manufacture (first sale) price.
Gaston was surprised at first to discover how closely these services are linked to corporate advising, a connection masked by KPMG’s work in accounting and business consultancy.”
“I knew that I would be exposed to client work regarding the import and export of goods to and from the U.S.,” she recalled, “but I had no idea about the particulars of firstsale regulations, valuation and classification of goods, and how much customs rulings can impact businesses. I wasn’t exactly sure how trade and customs would fit into the firm.”
As time went on, she found that current shifts in tariff regulations placed this arm of the company in high demand. “Since regulations are constantly changing, I am learning alongside my colleagues. The prospect of continually learning and adapting within my career is extremely exciting to me, and the positive attitude toward the constantly changing environment has reaffirmed that I have chosen a great field.”
This optimism allowed Gaston to establish a positive foundation for her time at KPMG. Besides the countless friendly coworkers she’s met along the way, her favorite memory is the company’s National Intern Training program: a fully funded trip to Orlando, Florida, where new interns complete preliminary training and network with colleagues from other offices. Gaston found the latter particularly valuable because the trade & customs department has few employees compared to KPMG’s other specialties, making it likely she’ll have professional relationships with them post-college. She also noted that networking allowed her to meet the largest challenge her internship had to offer: the lack of direct oversight.
“It is my responsibility as an intern to initiate projects and ask for more work constantly,” Gaston said. “No one is looking over my shoulder telling me what I should be doing at all times, so it’s really on me to assist managers with their projects.”
Besides the interpersonal skills she developed in the Professional Development course for second-year students, Gaston found that the research tactics taught in both of her majors made it easy to learn on-the-job technical skills. She also has had the opportunity to apply equations she learned in economics when calculating the import costs for consumer goods.
After graduation, Gaston hopes to be certified as a licensed trade and customs broker and use these skills at KPMG or another financial employer.
