CBP Posts New Version of Customs Broker Guidance

CBP posted a new “Version 2.0” of its Customs Broker Guidance for the Trade Community on Sept. 8, adding new information on qualifying licensed individual brokers, recordkeeping requirements for broker separation from a client, filer code suspensions and CBP standards for responsible supervision and control, among other things.

The new version of the guidance clarifies that qualifying licensed individual brokers for national permits are “not required to be an officer of the corporation or member of the partnership” to serve in that capacity.

The guidance also includes more information on what brokers must do when separating from a client because the client is intentionally using the broker to commit fraud. The guidance says that, in those situations, brokers must keep revoked powers of attorney and letters of revocation on file for five years after the date of revocation or from the date the client is no longer an active client, whichever is later.

“An ‘active client’ means a client from whom a broker has obtained a POA and for whom the broker has transacted customs business on at least two occasions within the preceding 12-month period,’” the new language in the guidance says.

A new paragraph in the chapter on responsible supervision and control clarifies how CBP looks at one of the factors for determining whether a broker is in compliance, namely the broker’s reject rate for customs transactions relative to overall volume.

The guidance now says an ACE “system reject of attempted data submission, which is not considered filed, would not be considered” under the reject rate factor. “A reject occurs when a broker successfully submits a filing in ACE, which is considered filed, and because of the lack of accuracy of the filing, is rejected. Customs Directive 099-3550-67, Entry Summary Acceptance and Rejection Policy, includes the types of rejections that would be considered under factor four, e.g., entries rejected for classification issues, valuation issues, bond issues, duty payment issues, repetitive clerical errors,” it said.