CBP Issues the Travel and Trade Report for FY2019 Highlighting Its Current Trade Priorities and Compliance Enforcement Initiatives

• CBP processed $2.7 trillion in imports, 35.5 million entries, more than 28.7 million cargo containers at U.S. ports of entry, and collected approximately $80.7 billion in duties, taxes, and other fees.
• $71.9 billion in duties was collected, an increase of nearly 73% over Fiscal Year 2018. The increase was attributed to the duties on steel, aluminum, washing machines, washing machine parts, solar panels, and goods from China. Specifically, in FY 2019, CBP assessed—

·       Nearly $716 million in Section 201 duties;
·       More than $1.1 billion in Section 232 aluminum duties;
·       Nearly $4 billion in Section 232 steel duties; and,
·       More than $29 billion in Section 301 duties against Chinese-origin goods.

Antidumping and Countervailing Duty (AD/CVD) Enforcement

• 503 AD/CVD orders were in effect in FY2019 (covering goods valued at $19 billion).
• CBP began enforcing 33 new AD/CVD orders in FY2019.
• CBP collected approximately $1.9 billion in AD/CVDs and levied monetary penalties totaling over $80.5 million on importers for fraud, gross negligence, and negligence of AD/CVD requirements.
• CBP entry summary reviews were conducted that resulted in recovery of over $121.8 million in AD/CVD duties owed (an 86% increase over FY2018).
• CBP audits of importers identified approximately $20.4 million in owed AD/CVD duties with $4.8 million collected to date.
• CBP seized, with the assistance of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, shipments with a domestic value of more than $131,000 for AD/CVD violations.

• In FY2019, CBP increased its efforts to prevent the entry of forced labor-produced goods into the United States. CBP is currently enforcing 36 active withhold release orders and four active findings involving shipments of—

·       Seafood caught by a Republic of Vanuatu fishing vessel;
·       Garments produced in Xinjiang, China;
·       Disposable rubber gloves produced in Malaysia;
·       Gold mined in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo;
·       Rough-cut diamonds from Zimbabwe; and,
·       Bone black manufactured in Brazil.

CBP processes over 600 million express consignment and international mail shipments stemming from e-commerce transactions each year, equating to approximately 1.8 million shipments a day. Adversaries seek to exploit this volume, presenting CBP with economic risks in the form of IPR infringement as well as safety risks from poor quality and untested consumer products. In FY2019, over 90% of IPR seizures were found in express and international mail shipments. As part of the agency’s E-Commerce Strategy, CBP—

• Issued guidance requiring electronic manifests for trucks carrying shipments valued at $800 or less (which are commonly referred to as Section 321 shipments) that meet de minimis requirements to enter duty-free into the U.S.
• Collaborated with the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) to finalize an e-commerce supply chain map, which identifies the various mode-specific routes ecommerce shipments take as they enter the U.S.
• Launched an e-commerce data pilot pertaining to low-value shipments of $800 or less, in which the agency will test the utility of accepting advance data from e-commerce supply chain partners, including online marketplaces, to help identify the entity causing the shipment to move, the final recipient, and the contents of the package. The pilot’s participants includes Amazon, eBay, Zulily, FedEx, DHL, and UPS, as well as technology firm PreClear and logistics providers XB Fulfillment and BoxC Logistics.
• Provided input to the World Customs Organization for the publication of its E-Commerce Package in August 2019, which includes an international Framework of Standards on cross-border e-commerce transactions.

CBP law enforcement personnel use non-intrusive inspection systems (NII) and radiation detection equipment to inspect conveyances and vehicles for the presence of contraband and illicit radiological materials. The average NII examination of a cargo container takes approximately 8 minutes, while a physical inspection takes 120 minutes on average. The time saved using NII and radiation detection equipment saves CBP $1 billion in annual operations and saves industry $5.8 billion to $17.5 billion in costs due to delays. In FY2019—

• CBP used 320 large-scale NII systems at land and sea ports of entry to perform approximately 6.6 million examinations resulting in 3,016 seizures and the interdiction of 316,203 pounds of narcotics, $3 million in undeclared U.S. currency, 1,655 weapons, and 200 undeclared passengers hidden within commercial cargo—more than 94% of these seizures and 98% of the total pounds of narcotics seized occurred by scanning approximately 15% of the commercial cargo and 1% of vehicles arriving at land ports of entry on the Southwest border.
• In collaboration with the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, CBP conducted technology demonstrations focused on automating NII scanning at Southwest border land ports of entry. The NII technology was placed at high-throughput, drive-through pre-primary and primary lanes and data was transferred for analysis to officers at a remotely located command center. CBP also deployed presumptive testing instruments to the field to aid in the identification of illicit substances including fentanyl. At the end of FY2019, 315 systems were deployed, and an additional 75 units were procured with planned deployments scheduled throughout FY2020.
• CBP used 1,350 radiation portal monitors to conduct over 140 million inspections at land, sea, and air ports of entry.

The Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) is a voluntary public-private sector partnership program, which recognizes that CBP can provide the highest level of cargo security only through close cooperation with the principle stakeholders of the international supply chain such as importers, exporters, carriers, consolidators, licensed customs brokers, and manufacturers. Today, nearly 11,600 certified partners have been accepted into the program. In FY2019—

• CBP completed the first major update of C-TPAT’s minimum security criteria in 17 years, and completed over 2,200 validations to certify that CTPAT members have implemented and followed the highest level of supply chain security measures. The vast majority of C-TPAT members (97.3%) remained in good standing, but the C-TPAT enforcement actions led to 96 suspensions and 120 removals from the program in FY2019.
• C-TPAT enabled CBP officers to reallocate a larger portion of their time to examining high-risk cargo by reducing examination rates for C-TPAT members, saving members $70.2 million.
• CBP saved almost $600,000 in travel expenses by accepting 338 Authorized Economic Operator certificates from foreign mutual recognition arrangement partners, nearly half of which came from CBP’s mutual recognition arrangement with Mexico.
• CBP officially began transitioning the legacy Importer Self-Assessment (ISA) program into the newly created C-TPAT Trade Compliance Program, which will transform C-TPAT into an Authorized Economic Operator program that includes security and trade  compliance. This will align CBP more closely with other customs administrations throughout the world.
• CBP launched the Advanced Qualified Unlading Approval (AQUA Lane) pilot program, which decreased time to market for imports arriving on sea vessels by increasing shipping expediency, ensuring predictability, and providing cost-savings for CTPAT members—C-TPAT members participating in the pilot saved nearly $99 million in total.

CBP agriculture specialists examined agriculture imports for potential pests and diseases, incorrectly manifested and smuggled items, and prohibited animal products and byproducts. As part of their inspection process, CBP agriculture specialists examine wood packaging materials associated with cargo to search for wood boring insects such as Asian longhorned beetles. They also inspect containers and conveyances for hitchhiker pests such as Asian gypsy moths and exotic fruit flies as well as for contamination from prohibited weed seeds, food scrap, or soil. CBP agriculture specialists also are trained to identify and contain emerging and rapidly evolving biological threats that are dangerous to America. During FY 2019—

• CBP agriculture specialists conducted more than 750,000 examinations on imported agriculture or agricultural-related commodities at the U.S. ports.
• CBP’s examinations yielded 40,200 pests that are considered harmful to crops, vegetation, and the ecological environment.