Enforcement of U.S. Import Admissibility Requirements

Better Management Could Save Work, Reduce Delays, and Improve Service and Importers' Compliance Gao ID: GGD-82-12 January 25, 1982

GAO conducted a review to evaluate the role of the U.S. Customs Service in enforcing import admissibility requirements otherwise administered by over 40 other Federal agencies. Specifically, GAO was concerned with the effectiveness of current procedures for obtaining compliance with admissibility requirements.

The review showed that enforcement practices are resulting in lengthy delays, excessive paper transactions, duplicative work, and confusion. GAO found that Federal agencies do not effectively use monetary penalties to encourage importers to fully and promptly comply with the admissibility laws and regulations. When imports do not meet these requirements, Customs becomes the middleman in the enforcement proceedings between the importers and the other agencies. Additionally, on the advice of the agencies involved, Customs routinely and substantially reduces the penalties. This weakens the effectiveness of this enforcement tool and allows importers to release nonconforming products into commerce with little or no incentive to do otherwise.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.