SEKO Logistics said U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has conditionally reinstated its participation in two vital international trade programs, but still has not identified the violations that led to the suspensions.
The Illinois-based customs broker, which is seeking unconditional reinstatements, said that CBP has yet to provide any evidence or examples of compliance issues to justify its actions.
The CBP announced that it had suspended multiple customs brokers from its "Entry Type 86" expedited customs clearance program to prevent abuse of the tariff exemption for direct-to-consumer imports valued at under $800 per day. CBP said the suspended brokers' entries "posed unacceptable compliance risk" and that "bad actors" were exploiting the tariff exemption to send contraband, including materials used to make synthetic drugs like fentanyl, into the United States. The agency did not say whether shippers were undervaluing or misclassifying shipments.
SEKO has also said that CBP suspended it from the agency's Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) security program that many large shipping customers rely on.
This is an excerpt from Reuters.