NEW YORK -- The executive director of CBP's Office of Trade Relations told U.S. Fashion Industry Association conference attendees this week that CBP thought crossing the 1 billion de minimis packages threshold was big, but then volume increased about 40% in the 2024 fiscal year. Felicia Pullam said CBP cannot handle that kind of massive increase and is confident it's stopping dangerous contact lenses, vapes, toys with lead paint, counterfeit airbags, medicines and other illicit goods.
Entry Type 86
Entry type 86 is an enfirmal entry type for low-valued shipments through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). The Type 86 Test allows low value shipments to benefit from the Section 321 de minimis entry process. Type 86 is considered customs business, and entries regulated by partner government agencies must be entered under Type 86 to benefit from the de minimis duty exemption.
Felicia Pullam, executive director of trade relations at CBP, defended the administration's proposal to end de minimis eligibility for goods subject to Section 301 tariffs as workable, arguing that charging a $2 fee per de minimis package will allow the agency to hire more staff to screen for contraband, and pushing back on industry arguments that collecting tariffs on low-value packages costs the agency more than that revenue.
CBP is clarifying how the ACE Entry Type 86 Test governing de minimis shipments applies to customer returns under Chapter 98 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S., according to an Oct. 4 cargo systems message. The agency said a Chapter 98 classification is not applicable if using the Section 321 duty exemption under Type 86. The merchandise would still enter duty-free under Type 86, but the consignee will be subject to the $800/day de minimis limit, CBP said. "Filers should assess whether filing under the Entry Type 86 or filing a formal or informal entry under Chapter 98 is more advantageous when processing returns, as both are permissible," it said.
While a top CBP official didn't give any specifics on how many brokerages were suspended from a pilot that allows electronic clearance of de minimis packages (see 2405310054), he told attendees at an annual National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference not to "be afraid of that enforcement," as the brokers who were suspended were so lax that there wasn't even anything that the companies could argue about with CBP.
The administration rebranded two pending rulemaking processes and revived one that was abandoned in 2021 to address the compliance risks of de minimis shipments as well as shrink the volume of direct-to-consumer imports.
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The Court of International Trade on Sept. 3 granted Seko Customs Brokerage's bid to voluntarily dismiss its case against CBP's temporary suspension of the brokerage from the Entry Type 86 pilot and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism programs at the Court of International Trade. Counsel for Seko didn't immediately respond to a request for comment (Seko Customs Brokerage v. United States, CIT # 24-00097).
The House of Representatives will not be voting on a de minimis restriction as part of its "China week," according to a list of 31 bills published by its leadership Sept. 3. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had said in July that he expected changes to de minimis to be part of the package (see 2407080049).
CBP will delay the scheduled Sept. 28 deployment of automating the $800 de minimis threshold in ACE following feedback from the trade community (see 2407240038), the agency said in a Sept. 3 CSMS message.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Sept. 18 remotely and in person in Washington, D.C., starting at 1 p.m. EDT, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due by Sept. 13.