Some Firms Suspended From Type 86 Haven't Been Reinstated
CBP suspended multiple customs brokers from participating in the Entry Type 86 pilot in May, and officials who participated in a background interview recently with International Trade Today said some of those firms haven't been reinstated.
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CBP declined to say how many firms were suspended, because they don't want importers to be able to compare notes and figure out which firms were affected.
The firms that were suspended had a pattern of violations, and had a high frequency of violations, a CBP official said. Suspending them from the ability to bring in de minimis packages that could be electronically cleared came after a long process, he said, after multiple meetings, asking for a compliance plan, and still not seeing improvements.
Those companies were assisting customers with importing boxes that ended up having prohibited items and even narcotics. The official said that narcotics would be considered a more severe violation than a counterfeit fashion item, and that the suspensions were based on the severity and frequency of violations found by CBP.
The companies sometimes had undervaluation -- the goods were worth more than $800 -- or misclassification violations, but those weren't the primary issues that led to suspension.
More than six months before the suspensions, Brandon Lord, executive director of the trade policy and programs directorate, told an audience of brokers that his team, which is responsible for the Type 86 pilot, had visited nearly a dozen brokers who had filed more than one Type 86 entry for a package that CBP discovered contained fentanyl (see 2309110059).
"Our attitude is: Type 86 still requires reasonable care," he said in September 2023. He told brokers they will be seeing more times when CBP tells brokers that what they filed as a Type 86 will need to be a formal entry, "because we’re seeing fentanyl like I mentioned, or because we’re seeing other issues of noncompliance."
"We’re counting on you to know what’s in that box and who’s sending it," he said. "The vast majority of entry Type 86 transactions, the broker is filing and acting as the importer of record. Nothing wrong with that, but it certainly exposes you to a greater risk of liability."