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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 173 / Friday, September 10, 2021 / Proposed Rules TABLE 30TOTAL SAVINGS UNDER ALTERNATIVE 3
2021 U.S. Dollars Savings for brokers
Year 2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026

Savings for CBP

Total savings

$7,493
7,493
7,493
7,493
7,493
7,493

$41,433
41,433
41,433
41,433
41,433
41,433

$41,433
41,433
41,433
41,433
41,433
41,433

Total

44,955

248,600

248,600

Totals may not sum due to rounding.

One of the primary goals of the proposed rule is to reduce compliance issues, penalties, and regulatory audits, and CBP does not believe that a system based on voluntary reporting would do enough to reach that goal. With only an additional 5 percent of brokers pursuing continuing education, Alternative 3
would not do enough to further professionalize the customs broker community, nor would their clients see an appreciable decline in compliance issues. Additionally, such a system would still result in a net cost of about $5.4 million over the 6-year period of analysis. Therefore, CBP believes that Alternative 3 is less preferable than the chosen alternative.

B. Regulatory Flexibility Act The Regulatory Flexibility Act 5
U.S.C. 601 et seq., as amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement and Fairness Act of 1996, requires agencies to assess the impact of regulations on small entities. A small entity may be a small business defined as any independently owned and operated business not dominant in its field that qualifies as a small business concern per the Small Business Act; a small organization defined as any notfor-profit enterprise which is independently owned and operated and is not dominant in its field; or a small governmental jurisdiction defined as a locality with fewer than 50,000 people.

A small business within the Freight Transportation Arrangement Industry, the industry that employs customs brokers, is defined as one whose annual receipts are less than $16.5 million, regardless of the number of employees.86 Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that approximately 96
percent of businesses in the Transportation Arrangement Industry NAICS Code 448510 are small businesses see Table 31. All businesses employing brokers under this NAICS
Code are affected by this rule.
Additionally, some small businesses may elect to become accreditors or training providers. Therefore, CBP
concludes that this rule will affect a substantial number of small entities.

TABLE 31SMALL BUSINESSES IN THE FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION ARRANGEMENT INDUSTRY 87
Number of employees
Employment size 88

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01:
02:
03:
04:
05:
06:
07:
08:
09:

Total <5
59
1019 <20
2099
100499 <500
500+

265,192
15,939
18,025
20,288
54,252
49,477
44,715
148,444
116,748

Preliminary receipts all firms, $1,000s 89
$67,276,572
6,315,166
5,392,992
5,870,163
17,578,321
13,973,780
10,886,028
42,438,129
24,838,443

Receipts per firm $
$4,454,222
708,614
1,974,732
3,851,813
1,335,029
10,397,158
30,493,076
2,854,327
105,247,640

Small business?

Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
No.
Yes.
No.

Some small businesses may choose to apply to CBP to become accreditors.
Those businesses would face the costs of applying to CBP, the potential costs of any protests they choose to file should they disagree with CBPs decision regarding their proposals, and the costs of being an accreditor. Small businesses may also choose to become
training providers and to incur the costs of producing and providing trainings.
However, CBP believes that those costs would be recouped by tuition and fees.
CBP further expects any costs not directly covered by fees to be minor and included in general business expenses.
Individual brokers employed by these companies would be required to attain
36 hours of continuing education every three years under the terms of the proposed rule. They would also face the opportunity cost of attending trainings as well as the costs of recordkeeping, reporting, and participating in any continuing education compliance audit initiated by CBP. Accordingly, the impacts of the rule to individual brokers
86 Small business size standards are defined in 13
CFR part 121.
87 United States Census Bureau, 2017 County Business Patterns and 2017 Economic Census, Released March 6, 2020, https www.census.gov/
data/tables/2017/econ/susb/2017-susbannual.html. Accessed March 15, 2021.

88 Note that some of the categories are sums of other categories. For example, Category 8, <500, is a sum of Categories 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. Thus, Categories 7 and 9 are not consecutive, but represent all firms employing 100 or more people.
89 The Survey of U.S. Businesses SUSB from which this data is taken is conducted in years
ending in 2 and 7. Note that finalized results from the 2017 survey are scheduled for release in May of 2021.

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