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For the first time, the two agencies that prosecute customs fraud wrote down how they think about it. If you file Type 11 today or will file Type 13 this fall, read it as a warning shot. Something Unusual Happened in July On July 14, 2026, the Trade Fraud Task Force released A Resource Guide to Trade Fraud Enforcement. The Task Force is a partnership between the Department of Justice
The Deadline Is Behind You, Not Ahead of You On July 8, 2026, the CPSC eFiling mandate took effect. Not “will take effect.” Took effect. If you import CPSC-regulated consumer products, the way you certify them has changed already. Here is what that means in practice. Certificate of Compliance data now moves electronically, at the time of entry. Not on request. Not after the fact. At entry, every single time. This is not a paperwork tweak. It rewires
Five legal ways to avoid or recover the cotton fee, how to transmit each through ABI and ACE, and what documentation you need to survive a CBP or AMS review. In Part 1 of this series, we covered what the U.S. cotton fee is, what Upland cotton means, and why HTS classification is what triggers collection at entry. This second post is the operational companion: exactly when you don’t have to pay, how to claim each
A small line item on your entry summary with outsized compliance implications. Here is what the cotton fee actually is, why it exists, and how U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) decides when to collect it. If you import textiles or apparel into the United States, you have almost certainly seen a “cotton fee” line on CBP Form 7501. It is usually small — a few dollars here, a few
Mention tariffs to a room full of supply chain directors or customs brokers, and you’ll probably hear the same handful of words: Section 301 duties on Chinese imports. Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. Maybe anti-dumping or countervailing duties get a nod, too. These are the ones people talk about. They fill the news, drive quarterly earnings calls, and are what keep trade compliance teams up at night. But
In 2025, the U.S. government tightened the rules on steel and aluminum imports. New presidential proclamations imposed tariffs on these metals and certain products made from them. In simple terms, more goods now fall under Section 232 tariffs. This has made importing steel or aluminum into the U.S. more expensive and closely regulated. The Section 232 Steel & Aluminum Tariffs now focus less on exclusions and more on inclusion requests.
If you are an importer of low-value food and cosmetic shipments into the United States, you must read this blog. Effective August 29, 2025, the De Minimis exception, which has been in place by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for these products for 30 years, has ended. This means that every shipment, whether one with a few bars of chocolate or a single bottle of supplements, is no longer
Come October 1, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will roll out new fee adjustments. For most importers, the changes are pretty straightforward. In short, CBP is raising user fees again. At the same time, updates to CBP’s ACE platform, and the halt of Section 321 de minimis shipments, are shaking up the way low-value imports move through the system. Shippers using Type 11 entries for informal filings on
For years, eCommerce merchants, along with their clients, took advantage of the De Minimis rule. Packages valued at $800 or less could pass through U.S. customs with no duties, no fees, and no additional paperwork. During the eCommerce boom, this perk allowed small sellers to compete on a global scale and provided buyers with inexpensive overseas products with no Customs friction. This allowed eCommerce sellers to process tens of millions of low-value packages and provided businesses
Introduction The regulatory environment for low-value imports into the United States has greatly changed. On July 9, 2025, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), enacted a policy change that removes the de minimis exemption of FDA-regulated products under Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930. In the past, importers were allowed to import eligible FDA-regulated products into the U.S.