CBP Needs to Account for Interests of Individual Brokers as it Looks at Permitting Changes, Say NCBFAA Leaders

CBP should be careful in considering the changes to broker permitting and take into account the individual brokers that would be affected, said Kuehne + Nagel Import Compliance Officer Ken Bargteil while speaking at the Feb. 20 Advisory Committee on the Commercial Operations of CBP (COAC) meeting. Bargteil, a longtime member of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) Customs Committee, said he was speaking for himself as an individually licensed broker and on behalf of Darrell Sekin, president of the NCBFAA, during the public comment period. The COAC "Role of the Broker" working group is developing recommendations to CBP for how to go about modernizing the current district permitting regulations for customs brokers.

There's potential that the individual brokers could get short shrift as the agency and COAC considers the updates to broker permitting, said Bargteil. “While it is very important that we look at broker compliance and broker management, I think it would be a huge mistake to overlook the economics that a change in the regulations would precipitate,” he said. One stakeholder that seems to be getting overlooked “is the individually licensed customs broker,” which don’t always share the same interests as the brokerages that they work for, he said. “If a change in the regulations were to cause a precipitous decrease for the demand for licensees, what I can envision happening is that the value of those licenses will diminish over time, and perhaps very quickly. There could become a glut of licensed brokers who no longer have employment.”

Cost cutting is always on the front of the minds of corporate executives and "I could envision many brokers losing their jobs very quickly if we were to change that regulation," Bargteil said. "That kind of change would unnecessarily have an impact on the professionalism within the customs brokerage industry. If you make the profession less appealing because there are fewer jobs" it will no longer attract "the kind of quality individuals we currently do," he said. Bargteil said while he does not entirely disagree with the potential for changes within the broker permitting regime, the individual brokers must be considered.

The Role of the Broker working group continues to work on several fronts related to the large scale revisions to customs broker regulations, said Jeff Coppersmith of Coppersmith Global Logistics, a co-chair of the working group. A newer focus for the group will be a coming recommendation on how to update broker permitting rules, he said. The recommendations, previously discussed before the COAC meeting in a working group report (see 14021819), will help align the industry with ongoing evolution of trade processing, he said. While there has not been much detail as to exactly how the changes would proceed, the issue has proven to be somewhat contentious, resulting the cancellation of a pilot on relaxed local permitting rules in 2012 due to a lack of industry support (see 12091233).

The working group has reached out to “the brokerage industry to get input as to the best way to improve the broker permitting and to meet current business practices, yet ensure proper supervision and control,” said Coppersmith. CBP should also update its broker management at the same time it makes any revisions to the permitting process, he said. CBP agrees with the direction of the of the recommendations being considered in response to increased automation, said Troy Riley an executive director in the Office of International Trade.