Primority

Seven calendar days. That's how long a customs broker has to answer when a CBP letter lands demanding they justify a Form 5106 filed for an importer client. Per a client alert from Grunfeld Desiderio, at least one CBP Center of Excellence and Expertise is preparing to send exactly that letter. Two weeks ago I wrote here about CBP's September 18 deadline, when 5106 verification begins and inaccurate importer records can get an IOR number voided on the spot. Now we know what the follow-through looks like for brokers. The letter is not a gentle inquiry. It demands a detailed explanation of how the broker fulfilled their legal obligations when certifying and transmitting importer data. Did you secure and validate the power of attorney before submitting? Call the importer's phone number? Email the provided address? Confirm the brick-and-mortar location actually exists? It goes deeper. Was the POA executed in person? Did someone review the grantor's unexpired government-issued photo ID? Did you check the client's website, match the importer name and EIN against what's in ACE, cross-check through a third party? CBP wants written procedures, internal audits, and, notably, the email communications between broker and importer. Fail to respond, or respond without sufficient records, and CBP can disable your ability to transmit 5106s electronically in ACE. Penalties and license suspension or revocation are explicitly on the table. Read that verification list again. Calling the phone number. Confirming a physical location. Reviewing photo ID in person. How many brokers do all of that on every 5106 today? As a licensed customs broker, I'll tell you what this letter really is: CBP formally repositioning brokers from data transmitters into the verification layer of importer compliance. I wrote in August that brokers were being positioned, deliberately, as the layer CBP would lean on first. This letter is that arriving in writing. And here's the practical problem: you cannot build a verification file after the letter arrives. Seven days is nothing when you're reconstructing a POA signed two years ago. Brokers who documented verification at onboarding, the logged calls, retained ID copies, saved ACE cross-checks, will answer from their files. Everyone else answers from memory, and memory is not a defense CBP accepts. September 18 is days away. If your 5106 verification process lives in habit instead of in writing, that gap is your exposure. The brokers who treat this as the new baseline keep their licenses. The rest are one letter away from learning what an insufficient response costs. #customscompliance #tradelaw #internationaltrade #importing #tradecompliance