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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 173 / Friday, September 10, 2021 / Proposed Rules
Aside from penalties, CBP
enforcement often takes the form of a regulatory audit. Regulatory audits usually occur because a CBP Officer or Import Specialist flags unusual or suspicious activity. CBP then performs a regulatory audit of the brokers activity, investigating the potential infraction, as well as the brokers overall compliance with regulations, rules, and CBP guidance. These audits may lead to a settlement agreement in which a penalty is assessed, but they more often lead to discussion between the broker and CBP as to how the broker can improve compliance and performance.
With continuing education in place, CBP believes that fewer regulatory audits would be necessary. From 2015
to 2020, CBP performed 84 regulatory audits of broker compliance, for an average of 14 per year.79 The number of audits holds approximately steady
across the 5-year period, so CBP does not believe it likely that the number of audits would grow in the period of analysis. Therefore, CBP projects 84
audits would be performed during the 6year period of analysis under baseline conditions, or 14 each year. See Table 20.

TABLE 20PROJECTION OF AUDITS
AND BROKER SURVEYS UNDER THE
BASELINE
Year 2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026

Audits

14
14
14
14
14
14

Total

84

CBP estimates that a regulatory audit of broker compliance takes CBP
approximately 559 hours, on average.
Based on the average wage rate for a CBP Trade and Revenue employee of $74.00 per hour, we estimate the average broker audit costs $41,351.
Based on a review of outcomes from the audits completed from 20152020, approximately 40 percent would likely have been avoided had a continuing education requirement been in place.
CBP believes that, had customs brokers been required to complete continuing education on an individual level, and, therefore, stayed current on the rules and regulations governing customs business, they would have made fewer errors and avoided the audits. Over a 6year period of analysis under the terms of the rule, CBP would avoid 34 audits, for a cost savings of $1,389,400. See Table 21.

TABLE 21CBP COST SAVINGS FROM REDUCED REGULATORY AUDIT ACTIVITIES
2021 U.S. Dollars Audits avoided
Year 2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026

Cost savings per audit
Total savings

6
6 6
6 6
6

$41,351
41,351
41,351
41,351
41,351
41,351

$231,567
231,567
231,567
231,567
231,567
231,567

Total

34

248,107

1,389,400

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Totals may not sum due to rounding.

675 penalties. See Table 22 for an annual count.

The number of penalties assessed between 2017 and 2020 grew significantly. In 2017, CBP assessed 20
penalties while in 2020, that number jumped to 119 see Table 1, above.
Between 2017 and 2020, the number of penalties issued increased with a compound annual growth rate CAGR
of 52 percent. The jump in penalties between 2019 and 2020 is likely attributable to changes in the AD/CVD
environment, and CBP does not believe that penalties per year would continue to grow at the same rate. Based on trends before and after the jump, we do not believe that the number of penalties assessed per year would consistently grow at any meaningful rate. Based on a 0 percent growth rate, CBP estimates that over the 6-year period of analysis from 2021 to 2026, CBP would assess
When CBP assesses a penalty against a broker for a customs violation, CBP
incurs the cost of detecting and investigating the violation, as well as
79 Data provided by CBPs Regulatory Audit and Agency Advisory Services Directorate on April 11, 2021.
80 CBP bases this estimate on an average of 60
hours worked per penalty at an average wage of $74.00 per hour for a CBP Trade and Revenue employee. CBP bases this wage on the FY 2020

salary and benefits of the national average of CBP
Trade and Revenue positions, which is equal to a GS13, Step 5. Source: Email correspondence with CBPs Office of Finance on July 2, 2020.
81 Approximately 20 percent of the penalties assessed between 2017 and 2020 were for infractions that CBP believes would have been
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TABLE 22PROJECTION OF PENALTIES
ASSESSED
FROM
20212026
UNDER THE BASELINE
Year 2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026

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Penalties

113
113
113
113
113
113

Total

675

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determining the appropriate monetary fine and handling any appeals from the broker. The broker must pay the penalty, which is capped at $30,000 by statute. CBP also works with brokers against whom a fine has been assessed to mitigate the penalty, resulting in the collection of amounts that are usually significantly lower. From 20172020, monetary penalties collected from individual brokers averaged $2,644. CBP
estimates that the entire process of assessing a penalty against a broker, from detection to working through mitigation, costs CBP approximately $4,440 per penalty.80 With the proposed rule implemented, CBP believes that brokers would commit approximately 20 percent fewer penalizable violations.81 As a result, brokers would save approximately $359,640 in fines avoided had the broker been required to complete continuing education. The majority of the remaining penalties were for late filing. Penalty data is taken from SEACATS.

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