Author: Jason Wapiennik

Requesting confidential treatment of your vessel manifest data is one of the rare pieces of customs housekeeping that is genuinely…

Every time an ocean container arrives at a U.S. port with your company’s name on it, that shipment generates a…

Two importers receive letters from CBP demanding money. The letters look nearly identical, arrive from the same office, and offer…

Most customs disputes are arguments about a decision already made — a classification CBP rejected, a value it questioned, an…

Most importers think of compliance as getting the entry right — the correct classification, the honest value, the accurate origin.…

When tariffs rise, the duty on a shipment can become the single largest line item in landing it — and…

A customs broker’s license is the foundation of an importing operation most importers never think about — until it is…

Five thousand dollars for a piece of paperwork that changed nothing. That is the reaction most importers have to their…

A prior disclosure is often described as a way to cut a customs penalty to a fraction of its potential…

After a penalty notice arrives, importers hear two pieces of advice that sound like the same thing: “file a petition”…

The number on a customs penalty notice is not a bill. It is an opening position. CBP’s Fines, Penalties &…

CBP does not grade on a curve. The reasonable care standard that governs a company importing four containers a year…

A CF-28 asks about one entry. A Focused Assessment asks whether your company should be trusted to file entries at…

An importer files an Importer Security Filing two days late on a container of furniture. Nothing is lost, nothing is…

A Chinese factory writes the wrong value on a commercial invoice. A freight forwarder picks the tariff code. A customs…

In 1993, Congress rewrote the deal between importers and the government. Before the Customs Modernization Act, a customs officer was…

In customs matters, the calendar is often the whole game. CBP does not have to prove much when a deadline…

After a seizure or a penalty notice, the question that keeps people up at night is the biggest one: am…

A letter arrives from CBP, and the language is dense, the deadline is buried or unclear, and the stakes feel…

When a customs problem lands in your lap, it is tempting to think of “Customs” as a single office somewhere…

Strip away the jargon and there are really only three ways U.S. Customs and Border Protection can reach into your…

If you have never dealt with a customs matter before, hiring a lawyer for one can feel like stepping into…

It happens constantly: a traveler is stopped at a U.S. airport on the way out of the country, CBP seizes…

When CBP seizes cash in Dallas or holds a shipment in Newark, the first instinct is usually to search for…

Customs and trade law is a small, specialized field, and the difference between a lawyer who lives in it and…