In a recent Law360 article, Thompson Coburn International Trade partner Robert Shapiro shared his perspective on how U.S. Customs and Border Protection is approaching enforcement in the current trade environment and what those changes mean for businesses navigating compliance obligations.
At this stage, Robert said in the scheme of enforcement increases, he views Customs as largely still in the process of “information gathering,” but he noted that recent requests to importers for certain documentation can be daunting.
“I see some really complicated and big requests for information that don’t give you much time to respond to, and Customs won’t give the expansion on time on it that they used to do in the same way,” he said. “They’re digging much deeper, [and] they clearly have more information that they’re using.”
Looking ahead, Robert said he expects it will remain a challenge for the government “to distinguish the good actors from the bad actors” in terms of trade law compliance, especially given the new difficulty created by the Trump administration’s shift in discourse with importers.
“I think that’s becoming harder because they don’t necessarily see the good actors the same way.”
Read the full article here.
