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Report: CBP Collected $40.6 Billion in 2018 Tariffs, Highlighting Importer Compliance Risk

Emphasizing risk factors for which importers should be aware and the importance of taking compliance measures to mitigate them, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s trade and travel report notes a significant increase in its efforts to enforce trade remedies in 2018, according to an advance copy reported in the Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg (ST&R) Trade Report.

The CBP report said in fiscal year 2018, the agency collected about $52 billion in tariffs, taxes and other fees, including more than $40.6 billion in tariffs, an increase of nearly 23 percent over fiscal year 2017, according to ST&R.

Much of this increase was attributable to the Section 201 safeguards on washing machines, washing machine parts, and solar cells and panels; the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum goods; and the Section 301 tariffs on imports.

As of Dec. 19, 2018, CBP had assessed around $527 million in Section 201 tariffs, more than $1.1 billion in Section 232 aluminum tariffs, more than $3.4 billion in Section 232 steel tariffs, and more than $8 billion in Section 301 tariffs on goods from China.

CBP began enforcing 53 new antidumping and/or countervailing duty (AD/CV) orders, bringing the total number of orders in effect to 469 and the value of imports subject to those orders to $24.2 billion, ST&R reported.

To enforce these orders, CBP levied more than $92.1 million in monetary penalties on importers for fraud, gross negligence and negligence with respect to AD/CV violations, conducted reviews that resulted in the recovery of more than $65.5 million in AD/CV duties owed, identified through audits approximately $25 million in AD/CV duties owed and seized shipments with a domestic value of more than $1.3 million for AD/CV violations.

CBP also saw an increase in activity under the Enforce and Protect Act to combat the evasion of AD/CV duty orders on products such as aluminum extrusions, plywood, hangers, pencils, bedroom furniture, steel flanges, and diamond sawblades, according to ST&R.