'Save a Broker' Campaign Calls on CBP to Contemplate Effects of RLF Expansion on Individual Brokers

A recently started campaign is working to push back against momentum for changes at CBP that could lessen the need for individually licensed customs brokers. The campaign, called "See a Broker, Save a Broker," was started in response to coming capabilities within CBP's Automated Commercial Environment that would allow for expanded Remote Location Filing (RLF), potentially meaning a single broker's license is all that would be necessary for importers across the country. "The national permit coupled with full blown RLF not only threatens our profession through lost jobs and core missions to protect the revenue and borders by reducing the ranks currently enlisted in this shared responsibility, it also devalues the individual license holder through declining demand," the campaign said.

The campaign, which was started by Donna Mullins, president of Mullins International Solutions, asks brokers to voice concerns to CBP in a letter to agency commissioner Gil Kerlikowske. Since the effort started, Mullins has heard from 147 brokers, she said in an April 29 interview. Under the planned expansion of RLF, as of November 2015 there's potential that a large multinational company with a single U.S. office would be able to "transmit a million entries from that one location in a given year with one licensed individual," she said. The issue has also gotten attention for the National Customs Broker & Forwarders Association of America in recent months (see 14042822) and association officials made their case to CBP during a February advisory committee meeting (see 14022415). CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There are two main motivations for the campaign, she said. First, "it's personal, because I am a licensed broker and I want to make sure that those of us who have gone through the painstaking process of obtaining our license continue to be valuable in the industry," she said. Secondly, "to make sure that responsible supervision and control is being adhered to, because, if not," the government will create some new problems for itself by "having to do the policing that is currently being done by the district level permit holder," she said. Among the concerns is that a decrease in industry oversight of imports would occur, according to the suggested letter to Kerlikowske. "It would be virtually impossible for one person to fulfill that requirement of 'responsible supervision and control' for companies that have multiple dispersed offices doing customs business and/or transact a large volume of business," the letter said. "Regardless of the size of the company, permits help to ensure that every entity, small or large, takes their supervisory responsibilities seriously. Relaxing this requirement will jeopardize compliance."

Part of the problem is that the individual license holders have been less informed of CBP's ongoing review of 19 CFR Part 111 regulations, she said. That's true, in part, because the trade associations that are involved are largely comprised of companies, she said. Within those companies, its generally the upper level executives that are kept updated on various efforts and often the information does not make its way down to the individual brokers, said Mullins, who is active within NCBFAA leadership, but is only advocating as a individual broker. While there's some differing considerations between the individual brokers and the larger companies involved, corporate licensees have their own concerns with the potential changes, she said. "I have talked to some of the corporate license holders that work for some the larger companies, that say, 'No way do I want to be the only one legally responsible,'" she said.

CBP should take a more measured approach to regulatory changes, it said. "Something needs to be done to avoid these consequences," the letter said. "I urge CBP to propose a regulatory change that will require customs brokerages to employ sufficient individually licensed customs brokers to assure adequate responsible supervision and control over those employees authorized by the brokerage to transact customs business." The letter suggests CBP look to how the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) addressed the move of Import Specialists from their own geographic boundaries to be within the virtual Centers for Excellence and Expertise. "I see the work that brokers do most akin to Import Specialists, and when we tear a page from the Customs’ own rule book why not adopt your own OPM model for the provision of responsible supervision and control? "

Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy for the suggested letter to be sent to Kerlikowske.