U.S. Customs revamps audit process for importers

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 19, 1999) — The U.S. Customs Service released new guidelines designed to improve and speed up the audit process by giving importers more time to prepare for the procedure.

Importers will be notified of a pending audit six months or more before the audit team arrives at the importer’s office. By giving importers more time to prepare for the audit, U.S. Customs expects companies to have all of their supporting records on hand, to expedite the process.

Customs will also reduce from 220 to 100 the number of sample shipments it will study to determine if a company is complying with commercial regulations. By studying a representative sample, the agency said it can determine if the company is compliant in key areas such as classification and valuation of merchandise.

Customs is applying a dollar value to the impact of errors companies make when describing the value and quantity of their imports. If the errors equate to less than 0.5% of the entered value of merchandise, importers will be placed in a low-risk category, even though the number of errors would normally place the companies in a higher-risk category.