U.S. Customs and Border Protection has released statistics on its efforts to enforce trade laws and regulations governing textiles in fiscal year 2017.
CBP states that textile and apparel imports generated $13.5 billion in duty revenue in FY 2017, 41 percent of all duties collected. Textile and apparel goods have some of the highest import duty rates in the U.S., CBP notes, making them susceptible to fraud and therefore a top priority for enforcement efforts. Schemes designed to circumvent textile tariff and trade laws include false invoicing, false marking and labeling, false claims of origin, illegal transshipment, misdescription, undervaluation, false declarations of right to make entry, false trade preference claims, and outright smuggling.
CBP’s efforts to address these concerns include international verifications and enforcement operations, which in FY 2017 included the following.
– visits to 145 factories in 10 countries, 20 percent of which were discrepant for illegal transshipment (up from 18.7 percent in FY 2016) and 40.6 percent of which were discrepant for preference program compliance (up from 34 percent)
– 252 seizures worth $4.75 million for non-intellectual property rights violations (up from 47 seizures worth $2.8 million)
– 6,175 seizures worth $7.04 million for IPR violations (down from 7,224 seizures worth $11.1 million)
– 147 liquidated damages claims (down from 559), including 142 for entry, four for redelivery, and one for temporary importation under bond
– 7,600 cargo examinations (up from 7,444), with a 6.4 percent discrepancy rate (unchanged)
– 37 audits completed (down from 60) with $4.4 million in recommended or accepted recoveries (down from $17.1 million)
– 450 laboratory samples tested (down from 475), nearly 50 percent of which were found to be discrepant for classification
– four national special enforcement operations initiated and four completed (compared to five and two, respectively)