A focused assessment is essentially an audit conducted by CBP — in many cases over a year in duration — of an importer’s customs processes and transactions. These audits typically look at the entire customs operations of a company. There are many reasons why an importer might be selected by CBP for a focused assessment, including volume of imports and percentage of use of duty free programs, such as US Goods Returned or NAFTA. Since the inception of customs audits in 1996, most major US importers have been or will be selected for a focused assessment. We represent companies in focused assessments, with the nature of our services ranging from general oversight and counseling to direct, frontline support in the form of developing audit response strategies and negotiating with the CBP auditors.
Our experience in managing customs-related audits extends to the special audits or “verifications” authorized by NAFTA. In taking advantage of the duty benefits afforded under NAFTA, importers, producers, and exporters subject themselves to verification of NAFTA eligibility by US, Canadian, and Mexican authorities. Our team of lawyers has extensive experience in representing clients in NAFTA verifications before such officials. Specifically, our lawyers have managed a number of NAFTA verifications for clients in the automotive, food and beverage, cosmetics, oilfield equipment, petroleum, electronics, and textile sectors, which have resulted in significant duty savings and penalty avoidance.
The members of our Customs/Import Compliance group have decades of experience taking clients through all the various audit-style processes that have evolved over the years – field audits, single issue audits, focused assessments, compliance assessments, importer self-assessments, and now Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) applications. In all of these activities, we have worked with clients to develop, implement, and qualify processes that involve all aspects of the customs commercial environment. Chief among these are valuation, classification, marking, drawback, duty deferral and preferential duty provisions, warehousing, and foreign trade zones, among others.
We also have years of experience in advanced statistical sampling techniques employed by CBP auditors in major audits, which CBP uses to review years of imports covering potentially tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Additionally, we have worked with auditors from CBP’s Office of Regulatory Audit and import specialists from across the country.
Our Customs/Import team members have distinguished themselves most notably by:
- Successfully representing companies in customs audits (e.g. focused assessments) by developing importer-specific strategies, based on the needs and objectives of the importer being audited.
- Providing strategic advice and engaging in customs assessments and statistical sampling reviews and analysis, particularly for importers in industries including auto parts, oilfield equipment, electronics/high tech, and agrochemical goods.
- Representing US importers before CBP on enforcement matters, including penalty mitigation and prior disclosures associated with focused assessments, particularly for automotive goods, oilfield equipment, electronics, paper, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals.
- Obtaining approval in an audit of the valuation process relying on the transfer price for a Fortune 50 automotive manufacturer.
