US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Import Specialists maintain a robust trade enforcement program to ensure compliance with laws and regulations governing all imports.

Many different schemes are used to evade duty or quotas on imported goods being brought into the country. Some importers circumvent quotas by transshipment-changing the country of origin of their goods.

Still others use false documents or labels or provide incorrect descriptions of the merchandise.

Textiles and wearing apparel imports are especially critical and have been designated as a priority trade issue for FY 2006.

Textiles represent 43 percent of all revenue collected.

CBP uses a multi-faceted, but complementary approach consisting of trade pattern analysis, on-site verification, review of production records, audits, and laboratory analysis to enforce our trade laws and to ensure that appropriate revenue is collected.

CBP plays a critical role in enforcing trade laws and ensuring that appropriate revenue is collected. Import Specialists in CBP with specialized commodity knowledge analyze and review textile imports for possible violations.

Focusing on textile violations has paid off with seizures of major shipments. CBP has seized more than $10 million in goods since the beginning of fiscal year 2006.

In addition, audits of various importing companies recommend the revenue recovery of an additional $4.9 million in 2005.

On-Site Verification
One of the enforcement tools being used is on-site verification of manufacturers. CBP Textile Production Verification teams travel to foreign factories to review and verify that wearing apparel that is shipped to the U.S. is produced at those facilities.

As a result of these site visits CBP Import Specialists will target shipments that are in violation. Sites are selected after extensive trade analysis.

The Textile Production Verification Team visited 15 countries in FY 2005. Over 480 factories were visited, of those 123 were closed, 8 showed evidence of transshipments, and 27 factories refused admission.

It was determined that 68 of those factories were high risk and 193 were low risk. The teams also discovered 16 FTA/trade legislation violations. To date $1.7 million goods have been seized from the factories that were closed.

Misdescribed Merchandise
CBP has initiated operations to address the misdescription of merchandise. CBP has seized millions in misdescribed goods. Import Specialists have identified schemes to circumvent safeguards by misdescribing merchandise at a much lower rate of duty.

In recent textile enforcement operations over $12 million in goods have been seized that were misdescribed. In addition, CBP import specialists have identified significant Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) violations.

Import Specialist FTA Training
CBP import specialists at the ports of entry receive extensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) training to target possible violation of FTA requirements in shipments entering U.S. trade.