Higher Duties, Political Undertones Compel CBP to Home In on Trade Enforcement

However, a consequence of that shift is that CBP appears to be less forthcoming on how to advise the trade on how to implement recent changes in trade policy, which has been due in part to CBP digesting trade policy changes only days or even hours before the trade community hears of those changes (see 2503120054).

"My thought is that when we're involved, when we are embarking in such a tariff-rich environment where we're seeing the increase in tariffs in such an unprecedented way, there's going to be higher reward, and as a result, a higher risk for companies to potentially try to game the system and try to find ways around it. So, as a result, enforcement is going to need to increase," Lenny Feldman, managing partner at Sandler Travis, told ITT.

"The question is, will enforcement be appropriately targeted against those who are not the partners, who are not the trusted entities, or will it be painted with a broad brush, as opposed to using more of a scalpel through a more of a surgical type process? So, I think that's really what remains to be seen right now," Feldman said.

Trade experts speculate that, under Trump's administration, policies surrounding tariff implementation have come from officials closer to the White House. As a result, CBP's role appears to be more like a policy implementer and less like a contributor, sources said.

"The administration’s focus, and, as a result, CBP’s focus, has turned to a much more enforcement-oriented approach," said Cindy Allen, CEO of consultancy firm Trade Force Multiplier. "Given the strong hand that the administration has taken in regard to trade and the centralized decision- and policy-making approach in a small group within the administration, CBP's role has changed. Previously, CBP was more heavily involved in advising and assisting with the development of policy. It seems now that their role is in implementing already set policy approaches."

Because CBP is receiving these policy changes and tariff additions only shortly before the wider trade community receives these changes, CBP has been struggling to keep up with providing technical guidance to the trade -- and sometimes that guidance has come with holes, such as lingering questions about how to address in-transit exemptions related to Trump's tariffs on China (see 2504300055).

"We have seen some frequently asked questions and some guidance issued [related to the implementation of International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs, reciprocal tariffs and Section 232 tariffs] but this is still a work in progress," Feldman said. "I think the trade and Customs and Border Protection agree that we're still trying to fine tune how these programs interact with each other, how the tariffs stack upon each other, and continuing to try to just get clarification as to the proper interpretation on some of the complexities of them."

At CBP's Trade and Cargo Security Summit in early this month in New Orleans, which Feldman attended, those questions surrounding the tariffs were asked but not necessarily answered, he said. However, "I definitely want to go on record to recognize that CBP subsequently did make a good effort to respond to them. But I think all parties agree, [it is] still a work in progress there."

But despite those efforts to work with the trade, there are other subtle actions that indicate CBP's more protectionist stance. The agency recently suspended its bi-weekly ACE trade support call without providing an explanation (see 2505270056). However, a spokesperson told ITT that CBP expects to restart the calls in the coming months and focus the calls to benefit the "software developer community."

CBP also removed the word "facilitation" from its annual summit (see 2504020036), so that the event's name is now "Trade and Cargo Security Summit," instead of "Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit," as it had been named since 2022.

CBP declared its whole summit to be off the record, which would be challenging to implement because "how the heck do you have a conference with 1,500 in-person attendance and 2,800 online be [off the record]?" said Marianne Rowden, CEO of the E-Merchants Trade Council, an e-commerce trade association.

Rowden told ITT that she was supposed to be part of a panel on the rollout of CBP's continuing education program for customs brokers (see 2410310028), but that panel was canceled.

"Because tariffs are so politically sensitive, I suspect that the White House or DHS was a little bit more involved in developing the agenda," Rowden said. She added that she and others had wanted more substantive content at the summit on how to ensure import compliance.

"Trade professionals are the plumbers of the global trading system, and I think most attendees just wanted to hear from CBP and administration officials [about] what to do because everyone is stressed out with the tariffs changing constantly," Rowden said.

The motives for these actions are unclear, and they may point to CBP's cautious stance on implementing tariffs, or they may be in response to a more politically charged environment, which has emboldened the agency to enact its enforcement identity.

CBP didn't answer a series of our questions on its heightened focus on trade enforcement.

"It was clear at the summit that Customs said that they were learning about the new tariffs pretty much the same time that the trade was. It wasn't like there was lots of discussions happening behind the scenes with Customs," said customs and trade consultant Tom Gould, who added that he found lower-level CBP officials to be transparent.

Gould also pointed to actions demonstrating CBP's heightened focus on enforcement. Besides CBP's greater scrutiny of importers to ensure they are not skirting additional duties, whether because of a lack of knowledge about proper compliance or because of efforts to cheat the system, the agency's job board shows a desire to beef up the ranks of enforcement officers.

"One of the things I'd suggest doing is [to] take a look at the job boards, the Customs job boards, and see who they're hiring. Last time I looked, they were actively recruiting auditors, attorney advisers, officers and different people in enforcement roles," Gould said.

"The basic concept is that more money means there's more companies either avoiding it, purposely or innocently, and so they're using enforcement as ways to make sure that companies are paying the right amount," he continued.

Furthermore, Trump's emphasis on enforcement could embolden CBP officers who joined the agency because the concept of enforcement resonates with them, according to Gould.

"Most of the people at the government agencies, that work for the government agencies, do so because they have a strong belief in the mission of that agency. If you talk to people at Fish and Wildlife, they're very into protecting the fishing [and] the wildlife. That's the mission of the agency. That's the reason why they joined," Gould said. "When you look at customs officers, customs agents, they very much believe in protecting the homeland and ensuring that companies do things right."

He continued: "Remember Customs, the largest law enforcement agency in the country, enforce[s] specific laws. They enforce the Customs laws, but they wear uniforms, they carry guns, they have badges. They can arrest people, and that's why they got into doing what they're doing. And so I think that we have seen that enforcement mindset for as long as Customs has been around."

Feldman, meanwhile, said the jury was still out on whether CBP's shift to enforcement is permanent.

"I think time will tell as to whether we're going to see a seismic shift to enforcement away from facilitation. What was interesting was, during the CBP summit that I recently attended with a few thousand trade members, I actually asked in one of the meetings, publicly, is the word partnership still part of the CBP vernacular? And the answer from Susan Thomas, executive acting assistant commissioner [for the] Office of Trade, and Diane Sabatino, executive commissioner [for the] Office of Field Operations, was yes, partnership still is valuable and very important to us, and they want to promote that," Feldman said.

As Feldman listened for buzzwords that CBP used during the conference, the word '"facilitation" didn't come out. However, the words "efficiencies" and "streamlining processes" did, which Feldman thought "was promising."

Regardless of CBP's intent or whether or not enforcement is trumping facilitation, both the agency and the trade community ultimately still need each other to carry out import compliance effectively, he continued.

"I think it’s important to go a little retro here and go back to the Customs Modernization Act and remember the key tenets there: shared responsibility and informed compliance. Whereas Customs at times, CBP at times, may feel that it’s necessary for the importing and brokerage community to step it up, the agency Customs and Border Protection, in a similar way, needs to step it up. We all need to step it up together in order to be effective," Feldman said.

"And again, that brings back the very important tenets and philosophies of shared responsibility and form compliance. The trade is only as good as the information and the clarification and transparency that it receives from customs. So those two-way communications have never been more critical, and I'm hopeful that everyone in both the public and private sector knows that it really is a dual responsibility."