World’s largest law enforcement agency facilitates trade, collects duties, prevents threats from being realized on U.S. soil

July 2016 - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has a dual mission: To facilitate lawful trade and travel while ensuring the safety and security of our borders and the global supply chain.

Annually, CBP manages more than 300,000 active importers of record, accounting for 33 million commercial transactions. In 2015, CBP processed $2.4 trillion worth of imports and $1.5 trillion worth of U.S. exports. We also collected $46 billion in duties, taxes and other fees—the highest amount collected in the past five years.

Critical to that effort is enforcing U.S. trade laws, and our enforcement posture has three prongs: detecting high-risk activity; deterring noncompliance; and disrupting fraudulent behavior.

To carry out that mission effectively, CBP coordinates with U.S. industries, 47 interagency partners and foreign governments. This collaboration enables us to detect anomalies, trends and violations in the global supply chain, target high-risk trade and promote compliance with U.S. laws and regulations.

CBP also plays a significant role in enforcing U.S. free trade agreements with 20 countries, and it has worked closely during negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement with 11 other countries.

I know the impact our policies and actions can have on your industry. Global overcapacity in steel and aluminum production is generating significant problems for economies worldwide—but particularly here at home. I have heard from many of you and I understand the challenges facing the industry and the labor force.

President Obama and his entire administration share your concerns about unfair, unequal competition from foreign imports and CBP’s enforcement of Antidumping /Countervailing Duty (AD/CVD) laws is critical. We work to detect and deter the circumvention of AD/CVD laws and collect all revenue owed to the U.S. government generated by these imports.

Task force created

The scope and importance of this mission are immense, so we have created a Trade Enforcement Task Force to focus on AD/CVD evasion. This task force strengthens CBP’s ability to detect high-risk activities, target illicit trade networks and more aggressively enforce roughly 270 AD/CVD orders on steel, alloys and other metal products (150 on steel products alone).

CBP personnel at our ports are continuously reviewing import information to detect AD/CVD evasion and noncompliance, deter future evasion, and collect on duties owed.

CBP, collaborating with Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security, successfully identifies, penalizes and disrupts distribution channels of imported goods that seek to evade AD/CVD. 

Let’s look at some recent examples for steel products:

In 2015, the agencies seized over $900,000 worth of foreign steel products and assessed $46 million in penalties for violations of AD/CVD orders; conducted 7,200 entry summary reviews of steel imports for AD/CVD issues; and identified violations valued at over $970,000. And just this past January, examinations by CBP port personnel resulted in the identification of more than $9 million in AD/CVD violations on steel plate imports.     

CBP is increasing reviews of Chinese steel imports, and using statistical modeling to better identify and predict high-risk steel shipments. CBP implemented “live entry” on certain shipments of steel plate from China, which requires that all entry documents and duties be provided before CBP releases cargo into U.S. commerce.

We are examining the effectiveness of this approach, and may expand the “live entry” requirement to other high-risk steel imports. As we implement these measures within CBP, we continue to work with all of you to prepare to enforce forthcoming AD/CVD orders on steel products that will result from the more than 40 AD/CVD investigations filed by the U.S. steel industry with Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).

CBP South Florida National Targeting and Analysis Group, alongside the CBP Southwest Regional Science Center's mobile laboratory unit. teamed up with officials at the Port of Laredo, Texas, to target suspect shipments of steel pipe and tubing for examination, conduct field tests and collect samples for further analysis.

New law takes effect

The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, also known as Customs Authorization, was signed by President Obama in February. This law provides an array of new enforcement tools and reporting mechanisms.

First, it creates a new Trade Remedy division within our Office of International Trade. Second, it mandates timelines for finalizing determinations of evasion and makes these determinations reviewable by the Court of International Trade. Third, it requires CBP to share enforcement information with interested parties who submit allegations of evasion.

We hope the metals industry continues to submit information and intelligence via CBP’s eAllegations system. I recognize the tremendous amount of time and investment put into building these allegations, and it is my pledge to increase CBP’s transparency and accountability around how we pursue these cases.

CBP opened a Base Metal Center in Chicago in March to sharpen our focus on AD/CVD evasion on steel products, as well as provide more consistency and reliability for metals importers. This center’s experts help to enforce active AD/CVD orders on metal products and work closely with industry to understand trade risks and target evasion.

CBP needs your input to understand the high-risk areas to target and how to prioritize our limited enforcement resources.

In partnership with the U.S. steel industry, CBP last year conducted five AD/CVD seminars for CBP personnel and customs brokers in five states. CBP will conduct additional seminars this year in Philadelphia, Long Beach, California, and Detroit. 

Partnerships with foreign governments are becoming increasingly important. CBP is planning joint steel enforcement operations with the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), and we’ve reached out to Mexican Customs to discuss similar options.

CBP will continue to explore ways to improve our trade intelligence, detect and resolve unfair or unlawful trade practices, and develop solutions to facilitate legitimate trade and protect the U.S. economy. MM

R. Gil Kerlikowske, who spoke May 2 at the joint annual meeting of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI), started as CBP commissioner in March 2014 after working as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Kerlikowske has four decades of law enforcement and drug policy experience. He was chief of police for Seattle; deputy director for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services; and Buffalo, New York’s police commissioner. He earned a Presidential Service Badge as a soldier with the U.S. Army.