Background

Several of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s trade enforcement measures accelerated in the first half of fiscal year 2022, highlighting the continuing need for importers to develop, implement, and monitor effective compliance programs.

According to statistics recently made available by CBP, the agency is on pace to exceed its FY 2021 numbers in a few areas. For example, if current patterns hold, CBP would see increases of 8.8 percent in the value of import safety seizures, 42.9 percent in withhold release orders, and 52.5 percent in cargo detentions related to WROs.

It is also worth noting that trends over the past five years reveal other notable increases. Again, if the second half of FY 2022 sees similar numbers as the first, the number of trade penalties issued will be up 52.5 percent from FY 2018 and trade liquidated damages will be up 100 percent. While the number of seizures for intellectual property rights and import safety reasons is not on pace to increase, the value of those seizures looks set to jump 100 percent and 627 percent, respectively. Most notably, the number of cargo detentions related to withhold release orders is on tap to exceed 2,200, compared to just six five years ago, and the value of such detentions would be more than $550 million, up from a mere $218,000.

To evaluate importer compliance and identify problems CBP frequently uses risk analysis and survey assessments. RASAs can subject importers to detailed scrutiny and require significant documentation as evidentiary support. If they reveal perceived compliance risks, RASAs may result in full-blown audits and enforcement actions may follow. For more information on CBP audits and how to increase your import compliance, please contact Daryl Moore at (202) 730-4976.

 

FY 2018

FY 2021

FY 2022 H1

Completed audits

435

442

168

Collections from audits

$42.2 million

$132.2 million

$16.6 million

Trade penalties issued

1,385

2,394

1,056

Trade liquidated damages

9,214

19,834

9,213

Collections from penalties/LDs

$15.5 million

$21.7 million

$4.7 million

Trade seizures

50,952

83,402

27,426

IPR seizures

33,810

27,105

10,583

Value of IPR seizures

$1.4 billion

$3.3 billion

$1.4 billion

Import safety seizures

7,880

9,145

3,566

Value of import safety seizures

$15.8 million

$105.5 million

$57.4 million

EAPA investigations

7

48

23

Value/lost revenue identified in EAPA

$15 million

$392 million

$9.9 million

Withhold release orders

2

7

5

Cargo detentions related to WROs

6

1,469

1,120

Value of such detentions

$218,000

$486 million

$227 million

* numbers in italics represent anticipated decreases from FY 2021 to FY 2022 while numbers in bold represent anticipated increases

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