As importers find themselves in the cross-hairs of CBP's plans to ramp up trade enforcement, they can no longer rely solely on customs brokers and siloed trade compliance departments because the stakes have become too high, trade attorneys suggested during an Oct. 22 Foley & Lardner webinar.

Small businesses have to hike prices more due to imports compared with large companies, and also are likely to face a higher tariff burden because of their lack of leverage with suppliers, according to an analysis published this week by the American Action Forum's Jacob Jensen.

In an effort to drive sales, suppliers have been offering dodgy tariff mitigation strategies to importers, lawyers with Foley and Lardner warned during an Oct. 22 webinar. Suppliers, particularly in countries hard-hit by tariffs like China and India, are as desperate as importers to avoid the painfully high tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, and may offer bad advice to importers to drive sales, lawyer John Turlais said.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- As CBP ramps up trade enforcement, companies must not only strive to have their supporting documents in order, they also must scrutinize CBP's enforcement actions to ensure the agency is interpreting matters correctly, trade attorneys said at last week's Western Cargo Conference (WESCCON).

Although cargo volumes at the Port of Los Angeles have remained relatively strong compared with that at smaller U.S. ports, it doesn’t mean that the port has avoided feeling any impact of the U.S. trade policies, the executive director for the port said at a monthly media briefing earlier this week.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- As increased trade enforcement, the federal government shutdown and efforts to hunt down counterfeit goods and illegal drugs dominate today’s headlines, so are these circumstances impacting the ports on the West Coast, according to panelists at last week’s Western Cargo Conference.

Test participants involved in CBP's National Customs Automation Program test on periodic monthly statements must transmit the payment of supplemental duty bills from an underpayment of estimated duties, taxes and fees via the Automated Clearinghouse (ACH), according to a Federal Register notice.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Artificial intelligence can never fully replace customs brokers because customs work often involves situations that require understanding the context behind an issue in such a way that a machine cannot, trade experts said on a panel during the Western Cargo Conference's annual meeting in Palm Springs, California, last week.

A Canada-headquartered biotechnology company agreed to pay the Bureau of Industry and Security $685,051 after admitting to illegally exporting water quality testing and analytical instruments to Iran. BIS said the company knew the shipments violated U.S. export controls, adding that it worked to “conceal” the destination of the exports by falsely listing a United Arab Emirates freight forwarder as the ultimate consignee, undervalued the items to avoid UAE customs scrutiny, and left out references to Iran in the invoice.

CBP expects to continue to implement new Section 232 tariffs should the government shutdown persist past the effective date of any new tariffs, officials said on an Oct. 1 call with the trade to discuss the government shutdown. CBP also plans to implement expected tariffs, such as the ones for lumber and furniture that take effect Oct. 14, without delays.