Thompson Coburn partner Robert Shapiro wrote a new article in Business Law Today on the filing of customs entries for international transactions, a complex and highly regulated process. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) current interpretation of "customs business" has led to uncertainty about what activities could be considered unlawful, he wrote.
"CBP has seemingly departed from the statutory requirement that the definition of customs business is focused on the preparation of the information or documentation that is to be filed with CBP," he wrote.
The compliance-oriented interpretation of "customs business" that CBP developed for large corporations in its rules on "corporate compliance activities" presents an alternative that could be applied to the activities of smaller businesses and allay that confusion, Robert wrote. "Expanding the concept of 'corporate compliance activities' to include all such activities, regardless of the relationships between the parties, could go a long way toward recognizing modern business practices and encouraging compliance, while also serving the purpose of the customs broker statute."
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