Attention! U. S. customs cracked down on poorly described goods
Effective October 7, 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Management (CBP) will implement stricter cargo description requirements for all air cargo shipments entering the United States. The move aims to improve the accuracy and security of cargo data and strengthen the supervision of imported goods.
Specifically, carriers and other interested parties who choose to submit ACAS data to customs must provide an accurate description of the goods, including "an accurate description of the goods or a six-figure harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS)." Any vague or overly broad cargo description in the Air Cargo Pre-Approval (ACAS) process will not be accepted and may face rejection.
Prior to this, CBP had initiated an alert phase by sending daily warning messages to key ACAS contacts pointing out instances of vague descriptions that had appeared the day before. The warnings detail descriptions of goods that are no longer acceptable, such as "gifts," "daily necessities," "accessories," and "parts." These warning notices will be emailed to ACAS 24/7 contacts with a summary of each vaguely described post from the previous day.
After the warning period, if the description of the goods submitted remains unclear, CBP will reject the declaration with the error code MISSING_CARGO_DESC. This code is for cases where the description of the goods is missing or invalid. Both the air carrier and the active declaration party, as the subject of the ACAS declaration, are required to verify that the data is in line with the cargo declaration standards and immediately correct any problems found. If CBP finds any noncompliance during the enforcement process, further action may be taken.
CBP also provides a "non-comprehensive" prohibited list of cargo descriptions, which can be viewed from its official website. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, but will evolve as the situation requires. The list contains some general examples that need to be programmed, such as no numbers or special characters, no English, no brand names, etc. For vague descriptions not explicitly listed in the list, CBP may issue a warning or denial notice. Filing entities should update the relevant filing information and improve their software to ensure that future filings are accurate.
In addition, CBP has recently strengthened the supervision of imported goods, especially the review of cross-border e-commerce goods. Starting in July 2024, CBP began to strengthen its oversight of e-commerce goods and suspended "multiple customs brokers" from participating in customs clearance for entry type T86. This type of entry applies to duty-free import packages valued up to $800.
CBP noted that the number of imported goods claiming the $800 exemption has increased significantly over the past 10 years, from about 140 million to more than 1 billion annually. This surge in the volume of duty-free goods creates difficulties in enforcing U.S. trade laws, health and safety requirements, intellectual property rights, consumer protection rules, and preventing illicit synthetic drugs and their raw materials and equipment from entering the United States.
To address these challenges, CBP has taken a number of measures, including adjustments to the entry type T86 clearance and updates to the cargo description rules. At the same time, the United States also accused China's cross-border e-commerce platforms of abusing the import tariff exemption policy for small packages under $800, and plans to take a series of measures to strengthen supervision by the end of 2024. These include issuing proposed rules to exclude all goods containing specific tariff products from the small duty exemption, requiring small duty free goods to provide specific additional data, and requiring importers of consumer goods to submit a certificate of compliance upon entry.
CBP also implemented new security requirements for air cargo from Europe and CIS countries in mid-August, following two cases of packages containing incendiary materials catching fire in the European package network. These new security regulations have led Korean Air Cargo to impose an embargo on shipments from these areas to the United States until November 18.
These measures by CBP will have a significant impact on international trade, especially for e-commerce businesses that rely on fast, low-cost shipping. Therefore, relevant enterprises should pay close attention to the latest developments and policy changes of CBP to ensure that their import and export activities meet the relevant requirements.
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