Recently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released changes to Part 111 of the Customs Regulations regarding Customs Brokers. These changes have a significant impact on how licensed customs brokers organize their business relationships with CBP, importers and freight forwarders. The new rules are effective immediately.
Section 141.31 of the Customs Regulations requires a broker to have a Power of Attorney (POA) in order to engage in “customs business” on behalf of an importer or drawback claimant. A POA is a written statement legally authorizing a person to act for another. The person granting the authority is known as the principal or grantor (importer of record or drawback claimant), while the person being authorized to act is the agent or grantee (broker).
“Customs business” means those activities involving transactions with CBP concerning the entry and admissibility of merchandise, its classification and valuation, the payment of duties, taxes, or other charges on merchandise by reason of its importation, and the refund, rebate, or drawback of those duties, taxes, or other charges. Customs business also includes the preparation and activities relating to the preparation of documents and/or the electronic transmission of documents and parts of documents intended to be filed with CBP in furtherance of any other customs business activity. Only a licensed customs broker is permitted to conduct customs business on behalf of an importer or drawback claimant.
Revised CFR section 111.36 provides that brokers must now execute a POA directly with the importer or drawback claimant without going through a third-party intermediary such as a freight forwarder or agent before transacting customs business on behalf of an importer or drawback claimant. The POA must be executed directly between the client and the broker. POAs authorized by a forwarder, agent, or other party on behalf of an importer will no longer be valid for the purpose of the broker transacting customs business. A broker must obtain new POAs from existing clients if the current POA is issued by the forwarder, agent or other party.
All importers should make sure they have a direct Power of Attorney with their Customs Broker.
If you have additional questions, please reach out to ICC Logistics we’d be happy to help you navigate.
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