Everything you need to import with confidence

A customs broker is licensed by CBP to prepare and file entries on an importer’s behalf. In practice that means classifying your goods, calculating duty, transmitting the entry and any agency data sets electronically, arranging release, paying duty, and handling everything that follows — corrections, protests, audits and recordkeeping.

Only a licensed broker may transact customs business for someone else for compensation. You may file your own entries, but most importers find the compliance exposure is not worth it.

The importer of record. Under 19 U.S.C. § 1484 you are required to use reasonable care in providing information to CBP, and that responsibility cannot be transferred to your broker. Penalties under 19 U.S.C. § 1592 attach to the importer.

What a good broker does is make reasonable care achievable: documented classifications, questions raised before filing, and complete records you can produce on demand.

Generally: customs value × duty rate, where customs value is normally the transaction value (the price actually paid or payable) and the rate comes from the HTS subheading for your product and its country of origin.

On top of the base rate you may owe merchandise processing fee, harbor maintenance fee on ocean cargo, Section 301 or Section 232 additional duties, and antidumping or countervailing duties. Those additional duties often exceed the base rate, which is why classification and origin matter so much.

Entry is the filing that gets your cargo released — it tells CBP what is arriving and requests permission to take it. Entry summary (CBP Form 7501) is the filing that assesses duty, and is generally due within ten working days of release.

Months later the entry liquidates, which is CBP’s final determination of duty owed. You have 180 days from liquidation to protest.

It depends who placed it. A CBP exam (VACIS X-ray, tailgate or intensive) means the container goes to an exam site — you pay the movement and exam costs, and timing depends on the port’s queue. An agency hold (FDA, USDA, CPSC) means that agency wants documents, a sample, or both.

Either way we work it directly with the port and the agency, and tell you what we know as we know it. The fastest resolutions come from having the supporting documents ready before the hold is placed.

Only if the goods actually originate under the agreement’s rules — shipping from Mexico or Canada is not the same as originating there. The specific rule of origin depends on the tariff classification and may require a tariff shift, regional value content, or both.

A valid certification of origin with the nine required data elements must be in your possession when you make the claim. If a claim is later found invalid, the duty plus interest comes back to you, so we review the underlying rule before claiming.

Often, yes — the route depends on timing. Before liquidation, a post-summary correction. Within 180 days after liquidation, a protest. If you export or destroy imported goods, duty drawback can recover up to 99% of duties paid, with claims filed up to five years from import.

Send us the entry numbers and we will tell you which route applies and whether the recovery justifies the work.

Brokerage fees are separate from duty. Typically you have an entry fee, per-classification-line charges beyond an included number of lines, agency filing fees for each PGA data set, ISF filing, and disbursement or bond charges where applicable.

We publish a fee schedule rather than quoting case by case — ask and we will send it. Duty, taxes and government fees are passed through at cost.

We coordinate the moves attached to clearance — drayage from the terminal, bonded transport, warehouse delivery and cargo insurance placement — and we work alongside whichever forwarder you already use. Our core discipline is customs, and we would rather be excellent at that than average at everything.