Importers charged millions in fees for improper declarations in March

Importers bringing goods into the U.S. in March were improperly declaring imports that racked up hundreds of millions in duties and fees owed to the government.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) monthly report of various trade statistics in March, CBP completed 71 audits that identified $310 million in duties and fees owed to the U.S. government from undervalued or improperly declared goods entering the country.

The $310 million in fees assessed to undervalued or improperly declared goods in March is a 10,590% increase compared to the amount of fees assessed in February, which was $2.9 million. 

The number of audits completed in March is also a 153.6% increase compared to the number of audits in February.

Supply chain experts said the White House’s new trade policy is finding more “undervalued goods” being imported into the U.S.

“The US has traditionally audited a tiny percentage of shipments from China but the new mandate is to ramp up enforcement and of course Customs and Border Patrol has been finding a ton of undervalued goods. Check the number for March,” ShipHero CEO Aaron Rubin posted on social media. 

However, CBP said it only collected about $49 million of the $310 million in duties and fees, along with revenue from previous fiscal years’ assignments, according to the report.

Also detailed in the report are the revenues the U.S. has collected from tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) for the fentanyl and migrant crisis declared by President Donald Trump in January.

The IEEPA tariffs include an additional 25% duty on imports from Canada and Mexico, with an exception for energy resources and potash from Canada that received a lower 10% additional duty rate.

For Canada and Mexico, the existing fentanyl/migration IEEPA orders remain in effect, except for imported goods compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

According to preliminary data from March, the U.S. has collected $7.89 billion in IEEPA tariffs on imports from China; $2.87 billion on imports from Mexico; $1.04 billion on imports from Canada; and $1.23 billion from reciprocal tariffs on about 90 other countries.

Other findings from the CBP report in March include:

• CBP has implemented 13 tariff-related presidential actions during the Trump administration and each day collects over $200 million in additional associated revenue.
• Processed 3 million entry summaries valued at more than $352 billion in March, up 16% compared to February. CBP identified duties of nearly $15 billion to be collected by the U.S. government.
• Stopped 434 shipments valued at more than $2.3 million for further examination based on the suspected use of forced labor.
• Seized 1,827 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $913 million.

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