Notice! U.S. Customs cracks down on unclearly described goods

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Starting from October 7, 2024, the U.S. Customs and Border Administration (CBP) will implement stricter cargo description requirements for all air cargo entering the United States. This initiative aims to improve the accuracy and security of cargo data and strengthen supervision of imported goods.

Specifically, carriers and other interested parties that choose to submit ACAS data to Customs must provide a precise description of the shipment, including an “accurate cargo description or a six-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS).” Any vague or overly broad cargo description will not be accepted during the Air Cargo Advance Approval (ACAS) process and may face rejection.

Prior to this, CBP had initiated an early warning phase by sending daily warning messages to key ACAS contacts pointing out instances of vague descriptions that had occurred the previous day. These warning messages detail descriptions of goods that are no longer accepted, such as "gifts," "daily necessities," "accessories," "parts," etc. These warning notifications will be emailed to ACAS 24/7 contacts with a summary of each vague description from the previous day.

After the warning period, if the submitted description of the goods is still unclear, CBP will reject the relevant declaration with error code MISSING_CARGO_DESC. This code is used when the description of the goods is missing or invalid. Whether it is an air transport company or a relevant party that actively declares, as the reporting subject of ACAS, it is necessary to verify whether the data meets the standards for cargo declaration, and to correct problems immediately when problems are discovered. If CBP discovers any non-compliance during enforcement, further action may be taken.

CBP also provides a “non-comprehensive” list of prohibited cargo descriptions, which can be viewed on its official website. This list is not meant to be exhaustive and itemized, but will evolve as circumstances warrant. The list includes some general examples that require programming, such as it cannot contain only numbers or special characters, it must be in English, it must not only be a brand name, etc. CBP may issue a warning or denial notice for vague descriptions that are not clearly listed in the inventory. Declaring entities should update relevant declaration information and improve their software to ensure that future declarations are accurate.

In addition, CBP has recently strengthened its supervision of imported goods, especially the review of cross-border e-commerce goods. Starting from July 2024, CBP will begin to strengthen the supervision of e-commerce goods and suspend the customs clearance qualifications of "multiple customs brokers" participating in entry type T86. This entry type applies to duty-free imported packages worth up to 0.

CBP noted that the number of imported goods claiming the 0 duty-free exemption has increased significantly over the past 10 years, from approximately 140 million items per year to more than 1 billion items. This surge in duty-free shipments creates difficulties in enforcing U.S. trade laws, health and safety requirements, intellectual property rights, consumer protection rules, and preventing illegal synthetic drugs, their raw materials, and equipment from entering the United States.

To address these challenges, CBP has taken a series of measures, including adjustments to entry type T86 customs clearance and updates to cargo description rules. At the same time, the United States also accuses China’s cross-border e-commerce platform of abusing the import tariff exemption policy for small packages under 0, and plans to take a series of measures to strengthen supervision before the end of 2024, including issuing proposed rules to exclude all goods containing specific tariff products from small packages. In addition to exemptions from tax exemptions, small tax-free goods are required to provide specific additional data and importers of consumer goods are required to submit compliance certificates upon entry.

Separately, CBP also implemented new security requirements for air cargo from Europe and CIS countries in mid-August, following two incidents of package fires containing incendiary materials in the European parcel network. These new security regulations have led Korean Air Cargo to impose an embargo on shipments to the United States from these regions until November 18.

These CBP measures will have a significant impact on international trade, especially e-commerce businesses that rely on fast, low-cost shipping. Therefore, relevant companies should pay close attention to the latest developments and policy changes of CBP to ensure that their import and export activities comply with relevant requirements.