CBP Urges Trade to Watch for Bond Sufficiency Issues

CBP is seeing an increase in bond insufficiency related to new sections 301 and 232 tariffs and expects that trend to continue, the agency told Colleen Clarke, vice president-business development at Roanoke Insurance Group. The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of American said in an Aug. 20 email to members that CBP told Clarke that the agency "is urging brokers and sureties to be proactive in determining bond sufficiency." Roanoke Trade mentioned the issue during a webinar last month (see 1807260011).

CBP is aware of "the volatility and impact the tariffs are having on bond amounts and are ramping up for higher numbers of insufficient bonds in the coming months," according to Clarke. An August bond sufficiency review found 397 insufficient bonds, up from 183 in July, she said. About a third of the insufficient bonds, 128, were recently increased and filed in June and July. "CBP will be sending an email to each surety advising they want to work with the surety, broker and the importer to perform long term projections so importers will be sufficiently bonded for a 12-month period," she said. While CBP has advised that bonds "should be 10% of total duties, taxes and fees" for the previous 12 months, "based on the higher duty amounts under Section 232 and 301, they will be adding language to the letters (in bold/highlighted) indicating that importers need to forecast what they will be paying in the next 12 months if they import goods subject to the high tariffs," Clarke said.