No Increase in Cargo Exams From New Enforcement Authorities, Says CBP
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Implementation of new trade enforcement provisions of recently passed customs reauthorization legislation will not result in an overall increase in cargo exams, said CBP officials speaking April 19 at the annual conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. Though CBP is focused on creating its new Trade Law Enforcement Division tasked with issuing trade alerts (see 1602230080), as well as implementing new programs to apply risk assessments (see 1602170074), the agency’s overall goal is better targeted exams, not more of them, they said.
Management of its scarce resources is a major concern for the agency, so CBP takes pains to make sure its exams are turning up real issues rather than costing compliant importers money, said the officials. As a rule, CBP typically does not vary the number of exams it carries out from year to year, instead using the data it collects to better target them, said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner at CBP’s newly renamed Office of Trade. CBP also tracks when exams turn up issues to better inform where to deploy its officers, said Rich DiNucci, executive director of CBP Cargo and Conveyance Security, who joined Smith on the panel discussion. “More knowledge” and “more data” does not mean more exams, said DiNucci. Instead, the “probability of finding something when we do an exam should be a lot higher.”
Nonetheless, some individual importers are facing “bad months” with multiple costly exams, some as a result of CBP’s newfound emphasis on steel trade enforcement (see 1602250021), said Daniel Meylor of Carmichael International, who moderated the panel. Some importers are having trouble because the exams are happening across the country, meaning they can’t resolve the issue by calling a single port. Importers with widespread exam issues should make use of the Centers of Excellence and Expertise, particularly with all 10 CEEs fully operational since March 23 (see 1603230019). Though the last six CEEs to come online aren’t “quite where we want them,” they’re “going to get there,” with CBP currently emphasizing improvement of external communication, which often seems the “last piece to make things work properly,” said DiNucci.
Overall, CBP has “over 10 pages of deliverables” under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2016, including close to 30 reports, plans and strategies it must provide to Congress, said Smith. Still knee deep in implementation of its new enforcement authorities, CBP has already implemented the decrease in the de minimis level from $200 to $800, though it still has to issue regulations related to how the change relates to other agencies, she said. CBP has also issued two withhold release orders under new provisions that eliminate the “consumptive demand” exemption to the ban on goods produced by forced labor. The ban has interestingly become a “huge issue” despite CBP already holding the authority to refuse entry to forced labor goods, and industry should expect an increase in petitions, said Smith.
One issue that sparked discussion was how CBP will implement controversial requirements in the new law that require customs brokers to collect and keep records verifying the identities of their importer of record clients. Donna Mullins of Mullins International Solutions asked why brokers should be responsible even though CBP is willing to authorize these importers for ACE accounts. Noting he “didn’t write the bill,” DiNucci said customs brokers can’t have it both ways. If brokers are critically important to the supply chain, they must also be accountable, he said. CBP would like to verify importers on its own, but there are too many, he said. “That’s why you’re so critical, but that does involve accountability,” he said.