25 containers have been detained. Customs in many countries are cracking down on under-reporting and under-reporting. Export goods are being subject to "penetrating" inspections.

Recently, the intensity of customs supervision in major markets around the world is undergoing qualitative changes. From Southeast Asia to North America, the crackdown on imported goods with low declared values, false product names and various gray customs clearance methods has been upgraded from the past "spot check" inspections to "full chain audits" based on data penetration.

On May 5, Philippine Customs intercepted 25 containers suspected of under-declaration at the Port of Manila at one time. In the United States, many cases of under-declaration of tax evasion have been held criminally responsible, and corporate executives have been sentenced to jail.

On May 5, local time, the Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) seized a batch of undeclared goods worth approximately 136.92 million pesos at the Port of Manila, involving 25 containers. The official notification showed that the importer of this batch of goods was registered as a building materials trading company, and the declared product name was "plastic shelves." However, after unpacking and inspection, the customs found that the types of goods actually loaded in the container far exceeded the declared range, and there were a large number of undeclared and suspected prohibited items.

Specifically, they include: rice, sugar and other agricultural and sideline products; counterfeit shoes and bags of well-known brands; second-hand clothing; chemicals; medicines; electronic products; food and various hardware and miscellaneous items. What is even more worrying is that some cosmetics do not have any labels or registration information, posing potential consumer safety risks.

Philippine Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno emphasized that such systematic false declarations not only lead to a large loss of national tax revenue, but also seriously impact the rights and interests of local legitimate businesses and consumers. At present, all the containers involved have been detained, and the customs will initiate confiscation and further investigation procedures in accordance with the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.

Compared with the administrative seizures in the Philippines, the United States has been more severe in cracking down on underreporting of imports, and has gradually formed a double high pressure of "criminal liability huge fines". In recent years, the U.S. Customs and the Department of Justice have taken joint actions to conduct penetrating inspections of companies suspected of under-declaring goods values, relying on big data price comparisons, average price models of similar goods, capital flow audits and internal reporting mechanisms.

One typical case is California clothing importer C est Toi Jeans (CTJ). The company has long used forged invoices and customs declarations to understate the value of clothing imported from China by more than US million, and has evaded tariffs of approximately US.4 million in total. In the end, the court sentenced the company to a fine of US.5 million and compensation of approximately US million. The company president was sentenced to 103 months in prison, and another executive was sentenced to 84 months in prison. This case is regarded by the industry as the first landmark incident in which the United States imposed severe penalties for underreporting tariffs after the strengthening of trade policies during the Trump era.

In May 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice once again announced a new case: a California trading company used the "yin and yang invoice" technique to lower the declared value of Chinese imported goods to 30%-50% of the true value, and was ultimately fined US.1 million. Law enforcement authorities revealed that now any goods whose declared price deviates significantly from the market average will automatically trigger a risk warning and initiate a follow-up audit.

Industry analysts pointed out that most of the current cases of under-reporting and under-reporting are closely related to some non-compliant "double clearing tax packages" and "door-to-door tax packages" logistics solutions. These schemes are usually accompanied by operations such as lowering the declared value, falsely reporting product names, falsely marking the country of origin, declaring separate orders or re-exporting to avoid tariffs. In the past, some export companies believed that regulations in Southeast Asia were relatively loose and there was "room for maneuver." However, as the digital supervision capabilities of customs in various countries are rapidly improving, especially in sensitive areas such as agricultural products, food, and intellectual property rights, the intensity and depth of inspections are no longer what they used to be.

Once a risk arises, it is not only the freight forwarder who bears the legal consequences, but the exporter as the owner of the cargo rights also faces liability.

Currently, the logic of global trade regulation has undergone fundamental changes. The old model of relying on under-reporting to save taxes and gray customs clearance to gain profits is rapidly becoming ineffective. Whether it is the Philippine Customs, which seized 25 containers at a time, or the U.S. Department of Justice, which imposed jail terms for low-declared goods, they are all sending the same signal: Customs is using big data, AI risk analysis and cross-border capital flow tracking methods to conduct "penetrating" audits of imported goods.

Especially in the US and EU markets, Chinese products themselves are the focus of inspection. Any price anomaly, logistics path anomaly or document logic contradiction may trigger a system warning.

In the context of comprehensive regulatory upgrades, "complying overseas" has become the bottom line for corporate survival. For export companies and freight forwarders, it is recommended to do the following:

1. Ensure that the core document information such as customs declaration forms, commercial invoices, payment vouchers, etc. are completely consistent;

2. Strictly review the qualifications of cooperative freight forwarders and customs clearance channels to avoid using "tax-packaged" services from unknown sources;

3. Abandon the fluke mentality of "low-price customs clearance". The tariff cost saved in the short term is far from covering the fines, port detention and even criminal liability risks after being investigated.