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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 173 / Friday, September 10, 2021 / Proposed Rules WCO. In 2018, the WCO published the WCO Customs Brokers Guidelines, which is a guidance document wherein the WCO recognizes the need for mandatory continuing education for customs brokers.4 In the guidance document, the WCO notes that the passing of an initial broker exam does not ensure that customs brokers stay abreast of changes in customs and related laws and recommends that, on their own or in partnership with other governmental, private, or non-profit organizations, customs administrations should take on an active role in educating the customs broker community about changes in customs and related laws and reinforcing existing knowledge.5 Additionally, in the guidance document, the WCO notes that some countries already require customs brokers to complete continuing education.6 Accordingly, in proposing to require individual brokers to complete continuing education, this NPRM is generally in line with the WCOs recommendations on best practices for customs administrations.

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D. Development of the Proposed Continuing Broker Education Requirement In recent years, the importance of continuing broker education has received attention on a domestic level.
In 2013, the predecessor to the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee COAC 7
recommended that DHS issue regulations requiring customs brokers to complete a minimum of 40 hours of continuing education during a triennial reporting cycle, pursuant to CBPs authority under 19 U.S.C. 1641f, on the condition that there be no accreditation requirements for such continuing education.8
4 World Customs Organization, WCO Customs Brokers Guidelines, at 28 June 2018, available at http www.wcoomd.org/en/topics/facilitation/
instrument-and-tools/tools/wco-customs-brokersguidelines.aspx.
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 COAC is jointly appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of DHS and advises the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Homeland Security on all matters involving the commercial operations of CBP. Meetings of COAC
are presided over jointly by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax, Trade, and Tariff Policy of the Department of Treasury and Commissioner of CBP.
See section 109 of TFTEA.
8 For a list of COAC recommendations that were considered open as of April 27, 2016, see Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, Term to Date Recommendations: Trade Modernization Subcommittee, Recommendation Nos. 1004610047 April 27, 2016, available at https www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/
documents/2019-Dec/_COAC%20
Recommendations%20To%20Date%20010001%20%20010412.pdf.

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In September 2019, CBP formed the Requirements for Customs Broker Continuing Education Task Force Task Force, which was placed within COAC
under the Rapid Response Subcommittee. The objective was to develop a proposed framework for continuing education for individual brokers. This Task Force was comprised of representatives throughout CBP and licensed customs brokers from around the country with decades of experience with international trade. Through this Task Force, members provided valuable input, advice, and operational perspectives.
In conjunction with the work of the Task Force and a previous COAC
recommendation,9 CBP published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking ANPRM in the Federal Register 85 FR
68260 on October 28, 2020. The ANPRM announced that CBP was considering the adoption of a continuing education requirement for licensed customs brokers. The ANPRM
solicited comments on the tentative framework developed by the Task Force for purposes of gathering further information and data from the broader customs broker community. This request for information and data assisted CBP in considering whether, and if so what type of, requirements would contribute to increased trade compliance. The ANPRM solicited comments on the following issues:
The number of hours of continuing education that customs brokers should be required to complete;
The customs broker license holders who should be required to complete continuing education including license holders who should be exempt from the requirement or required to complete fewer hours of continuing education;
The types of training, coursework, or other educational activities that should qualify for continuing education credit;
The manner in which qualifying continuing broker education should be provided online or in-person;
Whether subject-matter-specific education requirements should be imposed;
How compliance with the continuing broker education requirement should be reported to CBP;
What recordkeeping obligations should exist for the purpose of the continuing broker education requirement;
What disciplinary actions should be taken if customs brokers fail to report their compliance with the continuing broker education requirement to CBP, 9 See
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or, in the alternative, fail to satisfy the continuing broker education requirement;
What disciplinary actions should result from the submission of false or misleading information in association with the continuing broker education requirement;
Whether disciplinary actions should be taken immediately upon a customs brokers failure to report compliance with the continuing broker education requirement, or whether customs brokers should be provided with an opportunity to take corrective actions, including the length of such period;
Whether there should be an accreditation process to control the quality of the content of the various educational activities including how such an accreditation process should be administered, how accreditors should be selected, and whether educational activities offered through certain content providers should automatically qualify for continuing education credit;
The types of training, coursework, or educational activities that customs brokers already complete on a regular basis;
How often customs brokers currently participate in continuing education;
The costs customs brokers would anticipate to incur as a result of the implementation of a continuing broker education requirement; and The benefits customs brokers would anticipate as a result of the implementation of a continuing broker education requirement.
The ANPRM provided for a 60-day public comment period, which closed on December 28, 2020. During the 60day public comment period, CBP
received 29 comments.10 Of the 29
submissions, 23 submissions were generally supportive of the implementation of a continuing education requirement and 5
submissions were not supportive of the adoption of a continuing education requirement. One submission consisted of a question, and, thus, neither expressed the commenters support of or opposition to a continuing education requirement.
In developing this NPRM, CBP
carefully considered all public comments submitted in response to the ANPRM. Below are summaries of comments on topics that received the most attention and short descriptions of 10 The public comments can be viewed in their entirety on the public docket for the ANPRM, Docket No. USCBP 20200042, which can be accessed through https www.regulations.gov.

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