Ports Should Consider 'Totality' of Circumstances Before Issuing Penalties, CBP Says
After the Census Bureau heard last weekend that exporters are still facing penalties for minor filing errors, such as incorrect port of export (see 2210110012), a CBP spokesperson said, the agency has urged ports to carefully review penalties before imposing them. “CBP advises ports to consider the totality of the circumstances when issuing penalties,” an agency spokesperson said Oct. 12. The person also said CBP “provides mitigation guidelines for penalties” assessed for a range of reasons, including failure to file export information in the Automated Export System and incorrect filings.
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“The penalty should be assessed against the culpable party or parties per each AES transmission that is found to be in violation of the [Foreign Trade Regulations], rather than per each violation of the FTR with respect to the AES transmission,” the spokesperson said in an email. “For instance, when a [U.S. Principal Party in Interest] transmits incorrect foreign consignee information in AES and also transmits a false value for the merchandise, which is then exported without correction of the AES record, only one penalty will be issued to the USPPI.”
For first violations of the FTR, CBP “may take alternative action to the assessment of penalties,” the spokesperson said, such as “educating and informing the parties involved in the export transaction.” But the agency may also decide to issue a penalty “when the party has previously received a warning letter or the party has been educated by an enforcement agency through an outreach program or by other means,” the spokesperson said. “The issuance by CBP of a penalty for a violation of the FTR does not preclude CBP from issuing penalties for other violations that may exist with respect to the export transaction.”