Shippers Balk at Customs Bureaucracy

(Journal of Commerce)

Layers of administrative review stall trade facilitation, says AAEI The American Association of Exporters and Importers is complaining that layers of bureaucracy in Customs and Border Protection’s Office of International Trade are causing importers unnecessary delays in getting rulings and settlement offers from the Office of Regulations and Rulings.

OR&R, which had been an independent Customs division, was absorbed into OIT after Congress authorized its creation in the SAFE Port Act of 2006. In a letter on Friday to Acting Commissioner Jayson Ahern, AAEI charged that the organizational change has led to delays, because OR&R determinations are subjected to OIT management review.

Previously importers received ruling letters directly from OR&R. The rulings are Customs’ official determinations on the classification of imported goods, which importers use as part of their compliance programs. Read more here.