Compliance

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) expects importers to exercise "reasonable care" in complying
with federal import regulations. The agency works closely with importers to help educate them about
regulations in a process known as "informed compliance." CBP assumes importers have had sufficient
time to become informed and is now entering a chapter of "enforced compliance."

In the past Customs targeted the top 1000 importers for compliance audits. Today, under the
Focused Assessment Process (FAP) Customs is targeting the top 9000 importers.

The FAP process focuses less on historical compliance and more on the importer's compliance culture
and operations environment.

No company or individual can guarantee the actions of a United States regulatory agency such as US Customs.
Third party experts such as JD Goodrich & Associates can make recommendations and help you focus your limited
resources more effectively.

Ultimately, it is your company's responsibility to internalize Customs compliant business processes.

However, US Customs considers your use of independent experts and advisors as evidence of your company’s
good intentions to be Customs compliant. It is one of the practices Customs looks for when assessing an importer's
efforts to exercise "reasonable care" in complying with regulations.

Your company likely uses third party experts in many areas for accounting, finance and legal advice. US Customs
highly recommends you do the same for your import program.