Customs Broker Regulatory Update Won't Need Offset, CBP Hopes; Timing for New Importer Verification Requirements Unclear

CBP hopes a long-discussed update to customs broker regulations in 19 CFR Part 111 will be considered "deregulatory" under the Trump administration's executive order on reducing regulatory burdens (see 1702070048), Robert Altneu, chief of CBP's Trade and Commercial Regualtions Branch, said July 26. That executive order requires that there be two offsetting regulations for every new "significant" regulation, and CBP now believes the Part 111 update could be such an offset, he said. Altneu spoke during a webinar hosted by CBP and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America.

CBP's proposal "will address many issues," he said. "We're hoping that in light of the executive order 13771 that the proposed actions that we're planning on taking will be deemed deregulatory, as opposed to regulatory. So therefore we won't have to find offsets to this rule. Instead, this rule will be something that we could bank later on for any future action the agency may take." There's been an ongoing effort to compile a list of possible deregulatory actions to serve as offsets (see 1705090020).

Altneu declined to go into specifics about the proposal, in part because further changes could still occur during agency and departmental reviews, he said. A CBP official said earlier this year that changes to power of attorney and cybersecurity requirements are likely to be components of the proposal (see 1704040086). The agency will also likely include many of the recommendations that the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (see 1604250011) submitted, that same official said.

Meanwhile, the work toward a proposed rule to implement new importer validation requirements for customs brokers outlined in the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 is "ongoing," Altneu said. "We're hoping that we'll issue [a proposal] on how to implement this provision in the near future," he said. Section 116 of TFTEA requires CBP to establish minimum standards for what importers need to provide to brokers, and what brokers need to collect from importers and provide to CBP, to validate the importer’s identity (see 1602170074). Unlike other parts of TFTEA, "that one does not have a statutory deadline for it," he said. "So we are working on this one; however, we have other priorities, including those that do have statutory deadlines and so we are trying to prioritize these." The agency hopes to have a proposal out in a "meaningful short time," he said.