NCBFAA Asks CBP for More Time as Office Closures Make Clients Hard to Reach, Magnus Says
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America has presented a long list of measures CBP could take to ease the pain for brokers dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, with the trade group’s request for a deferral of duty payments (see 2003230025) just one item of many, NCBFAA President Amy Magnus said in an interview March 24. Many of them are requests that CBP delay deadlines -- including, for example, for responses to CF-28 requests for information -- that are harder to meet as clients close their workplaces and operate skeleton staffs, Magnus said.
“So many people are now so difficult to reach,” Magnus said. Key employees at importers that customs brokers would normally consult “might not be in the office, or may not be able to respond in a timely fashion.” In other cases, importers are “simply swamped” due to high demand for the product they import. In this environment, “importers may not be able to gather all the information they need to timely respond to various CBP requests for additional information -- some of it comes from overseas, some from departments which may be short-staffed,” she said.
The NCBFAA thinks the CBP will recognize that “there will be some challenges,” and that if brokers are struggling to meet deadlines, then a delay may be appropriate, Magnus said. Knowing the current mood, “unless something is really critical, I think CBP understands,” she said. “Right now we need each other, Customs and the brokers, just so we can keep things moving as smoothly as possible and avoid any disruption.” Magnus added that the list has been shared with the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee to give a broader cross-section of the trade industry a chance to review it.
Otherwise, customs brokers are operating at close to normal, though somewhat abnormally. For many, working from home “seems to be going smoothly” after an initial transition, Magnus said. “Cargo is moving, trucks are still rolling.” The government agencies brokers deal with are also close to normal capacity. CBP, in particular, had already transitioned many of its employees to working remotely when they stood up the Centers of Excellence and Expertise. Agency employees, “have been available, they’ve been communicative. I hope that continues, because so far, so good,” she said.
“Brokers are very creative and resilient, so they should be doing the things they always do, which is to serve our customers, to try to make sure there are no delays in the processing of their entries and their freight. Just continuing to focus on those things, and trying to assist customers with any issues they have, to the best we’re able to do,” Magnus said. While working remotely is a curve ball in an industry that hasn’t generally done so to this extent, that just means ensuring that “everybody is properly set up, can communicate, and has the connectivity they need,” she said. “All of those things are important for us to continue to do our job.”
Asked whether she thinks the temporary shift to remote work could have some lasting impact on how brokers do their work, Magnus said it’s still too early to tell. “After a while, some of us are going to miss each other. There’s a lot that goes on in an office, that is actually kind of nice.” But while things might get back to normal, “we now know, or have proven, that we can do this,” Magnus said.