U.S. Customs Compliance & Enforcement

• Examining refunds: Protests, supplier/consumer litigation risks, CIT filing considerations and best practices around navigating the CAPE process
  • Submission-to-acceptance timeline trends
  • Data formatting and normalization issues
    • Tightening internal coordination between compliance, brokers, and finance so that classifications, quantities, values, and supporting docs line up cleanly
  • The potential downstream effects of tariffs: Transfer pricing implications and possible refunds to customers, suppliers and quantifying this refund risk
• Implementing Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs horizon planning: Potential new duties on products and forced labor restrictions
  • 301 forced labor investigations: Does this signal a new and expanded forced labor regime reaching new industries and trading partners?
  • Current dynamics of 301 China tariffs and retaliatory efforts
  • 232 investigations into steel, semiconductors, critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, and beyond
    • Sector-specific impact analyses: How are industries coping?
    • 232 tariff stacking
  • Impacts of these investigations on existing trade agreements
• Determining the future of the USMCA and other trade agreements and preference programs under an evolving tariff regime
• Responding to Cross-Agency DOJ/CBP enforcement:
  • CBP CF 28/CF 29 questionnaires: How and when CBP issues CF 28s and CF 29s versus a notice of investigation or enforcement action
  • Mitigating False Claims Act and AD/CVD violation risk
  • Undervaluation, misclassification responses
    • Properly prepared prior disclosures

Customs authorities in the U.S. and globally are intensifying their scrutiny. Origin, classification and valuation are no longer mere technicalities; they carry significant risk and the burden of proof lies squarely with the importer. Examine how proactive organizations are retooling these crucial import compliance exercises to meet a more proactive compliance protocol environment.

• Classification:
  • Written procedures using GRIs, ENs, rulings, HTS updates
  • Verification process when a classification changes
  • Database: Who classified and reviewed, and when
• Valuation:
  • Method(s) used and justification
  • Additions: Assists, royalties, and more
  • Customs transfer pricing study, not a tax study
  • Reconciliation, computed value, consignment
• Country of Origin:
  • Procedures beyond the supplier’s invoice
  • How you verify: Do you audit?
  • Recent COO shifts (esp. from China) and FTAs
  • USMCA: 301 may apply despite rule of origin

Part One: Focus on Metals and Critical Minerals: Section 232 tariffs on aluminum, steel, and copper

• Manufacturing drawback conditions under 19 U.S.C. 1313
• Annex classifications
• Zero duty provisions
• Reviewing whether any preferential UK or US-origin metal treatment may be available
• USMCA preferential tariff treatment
  • Procedures for submission and review of documentation substantiating U.S. production capacity
• Critical minerals: Potential future duties and restrictions on imports of processed critical minerals and their derivatives (PCMDPs)
  • Mapping exposure to PCMDPs
  • Evaluating alternative or “friend-shored” processing options in case Commerce moves to price floors or tariffs

Part Two: Focus on Emerging Technology

• Semiconductors and advanced AI commodities: Potential immediate cost and compliance exposure through a 25% tariff on designated “Covered Products” and their derivatives
  • Qualifying for exemptions for “non-data-center consumer applications” and “non-data-center civil industrial applications”
• Energy: Polysilicon 232 investigation emergence

Part Three: Focus on Pharma

• Section 232 tariffs on pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients: Assessing exposure, managing compliance risk, and planning for operational disruption
  • Key compliance and reporting considerations
  • Covered and excluded products
  • Navigating a tiered tariff framework with multiple rates depending on the country of origin, the importing company’s status, and the nature of the product
  • Onshoring/qualifying for MFN pharmaceutical pricing agreements

Part Four: Focus on Supply Chain

• SME outlook: Practical impacts from having to maneuver supply chains and sourcing and how these unpredictable input costs have clouded any landed price comparisons
• Navigating 232 tariff stacking
• Evaluating drawback opportunities for qualifying products and trade partner sourcing structures
• Document everything: Keep meticulous documentation/proof of supplier values, origin codes, manufacturing documentation, and entry-summary line logic
• Shifting just enough manufacturing operations to other countries so origin is conferred there: Determining if new origin meets substantial transformation rules
• Review shipments from high-risk jurisdictions, especially for goods requiring FTZ treatment

Trade compliance teams spend countless hours gathering data, investigating discrepancies, responding to regulatory changes, and preparing for audits. Yet most compliance programs still rely on periodic reviews that identify issues only after they have occurred.

Advances in AI and automation are creating a new approach: continuous compliance. Rather than reviewing a small sample of transactions after the fact, organizations can continuously monitor classifications, duty impacts, forced labor risks, free trade agreement claims, product data changes, and other compliance activities in near real time.

This session will explore how leading organizations are using AI to identify risks earlier, automate routine reviews, improve audit readiness, and focus human expertise where it matters most. Attendees will learn practical strategies for implementing continuous compliance programs that increase visibility and control while maintaining appropriate governance and human oversight.

Key Takeaways

• How continuous compliance differs from traditional audit and review models
• Where AI can automate monitoring and exception detection
• How to focus human expertise on high-risk decisions and investigations
• Best practices for creating an auditable, defensible compliance program
• Steps organizations can take today to move from reactive compliance to proactive risk management

Audience Takeaway: Stop looking for compliance problems after the fact. Use AI to find them before they become violations.

In partnership with:

DOJ’s new Trade Fraud Task Force is intensifying civil and criminal enforcement, including tariff evasion, False Claims Act violations and duty enforcement. During this session, gain critically important updates on new, high stakes risks that will inform your compliance decision-making.

• The new DOJ Trade Fraud Task Force: Priorities and expectations
• Enforcement related to the accuracy of products labeled “Made in America” or “Made in the USA”
• Navigating expanded use of AI powered supply chain mapping by CBP to identify transshipment, undervaluation, and other anomalies, resulting in more CF 28s, CF 29s, audits, focused assessments, and civil penalties
• Increased False Claims Act qui tam complaints focused on duty evasion, giving whistleblowers a direct financial stake in (and incentive to bring) customs law-focused cases
• Parallel civil penalty actions and, in some cases, criminal charges against companies and individual executives for evasion of antidumping, countervailing, and special tariffs
• Establishing a cross functional response plan for CBP inquiries, subpoenas, and whistleblower allegations

Delegates are invited to join interactive breakout roundtables, to work through the unique, heightened compliance pain points affecting their specific industries.

• Topic #1: Refund Approach Best-Practices
• Topic #2: Strengthening and Right Sizing Your Compliance Program
• Topic #3: Supply Chain Disruption Mitigation
• Topic #4: Use of AI in Customs Compliance