Issue 293, February 14, 2001
It may come as no surprise that the Customs Service retains statistical information regarding a company's importing activities. This information is used by Customs in a number of ways, including creating importer profiles and tracking compliance level measurements conducted on individual importers. Also, these profiles are used by Customs in selecting companies for compliance assessment reviews, and for choosing the particular transactions audited in such reviews.

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), importers can acquire this data as it relates to their Customs entries made over a recent period of time, usually three years. Typically, the information that interested importers can retrieve falls into several general categories broken out on a year-by-year basis. Those categories include: 1) the HTSUS classifications used by the company, and the total values declared and duties paid by the company relative to those classifications; 2) the total entered values and duties paid based on the company's importer identification number, its ports of entry or the brokers it used; 3) the different reduced duty programs (NAFTA, GSP, CBI, etc.) used by the importer, and the HTSUS numbers, entered values, and duties paid relative to each such duty program; 4) the different types of entries used (consumption, warehouse, TIB, antidumping/countervailing duty), and the values and duties relative to each type; and, 5) a summary of the company's cargo exams and the Customs compliance findings relative to those exams, including Customs' comments on the exam, if applicable. Please note that these categories are simply representative of what has been uncovered in the past and may vary depending on the importer.

Like all government agencies, Customs has promulgated regulations that implement the FOIA. While individuals can request specific items pursuant to the FOIA, not all documents must be made available. Documents involving national security, foreign policy, trade secrets, agency rules and procedures, and intra- and interagency communication, among others, need not be produced. And don't worry, your competitors cannot get privileged or confidential information about you from Customs via FOIA, as that type of information would be exempt from disclosure.

What can a company do with this information after it receives it? This information constitutes a snapshot of a company's recent importing history. It is a valuable tool for analyzing company importing trends, which in turn could lead to cost savings, higher compliance rates and improved efficiencies for the company.

How can I request information about my company?

Our contributing writer, F.D. "Rick" Van Arnam, is a Partner at the Customs and international trade law firm of Barnes, Richardson & Colburn in New York, and can be reached at via email or at (212) 725-0200.

Please note that due to the complex nature of the subject matter, Danzas AEI cannot be responsible for actions taken by the reader in reliance on the information contained herein without prior consultation with Danzas AEI.