Customs and Border Protection Plans to Enhance Oversight of Low-Value Shipments
As the landscape of online shopping expands, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is poised to increase scrutiny on low-value shipments entering the United States. These packages, often containing consumer goods purchased from platforms like Amazon, have traditionally bypassed stringent inspections due to their lower declared value.
Defined by their minimal monetary worth, low-value shipments are subject to less rigorous customs checks to expedite processing. However, CBP has identified that some of these packages have been used to smuggle illegal substances, including fentanyl and its precursor chemicals. With approximately 4 million of these shipments processed daily, the agency faces significant challenges in pinpointing high-risk parcels, partially due to insufficient data accompanying these shipments.
The agency’s proposed regulation aims to bolster inspection protocols and enhance data collection for these shipments. According to a CBP statement, the rule would “revise the current process for entering low-value shipments to require additional data elements that would assist CBP in verifying eligibility for duty- and tax-free entry by creating a fully electronic process for filers to transmit entry data prior to a shipment’s arrival.”
The public is invited to provide feedback on this proposal within a 60-day comment period.
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