U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a final rule revising the regulations for goods shipped ‘In-Bond’, effective November 27, 2017. In-bond shipments are transported within the U.S. under bond, without entering into the commerce of the U.S. or payment of duties.
There are three In-bond types:
- IT: In-Transit bonds, where a good is moved to another port for entry filing;
- T&E: Transportation and Exportation bonds, where a good is transported to another port and then exported from the U.S.; and
- IE: Immediate Export bonds, where a good may be immediately exported from the same port it arrived in.
Summary of major changes to In-bond:
-Barge In-Transit Time: Extended to 60 days; other modes remain at 30-days.
-Reporting Timeframes: Two (2) business days for Reporting-of-Arrival and Notice-of- Export.
-Description of Merchandise:
- In-bond merchandise subject to the authority of a U.S. government agency must be described with sufficient accuracy to enable the agency concerned to determine the contents of the shipment.
- Six-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) number required.
- Identification of Prohibited or restricted merchandise will not be mandatory.
- U.S. or foreign government authority issued visa, permit, license, etc. reporting will not be required.
- Detailed reporting for textiles for IT In-Bonds remains in effect.
-Reporting Quantity: Will require the quantity of the smallest external packing unit.
-Divided Shipments: In-bonds may be split once the shipment reaches the port of destination, with some goods entered for consumption or warehoused, and the rest forwarded under a new in-bond to another port of destination. The regulations for this will move from 19 CFR 18.5(d) to 18.1(m).
-Bonded Carrier: Definition added to identify which party is liable for a failure to comply with in-bond requirements.
-Transfers (Transshipment) from One Conveyance to Another: CBP will no longer require notification when in-bond merchandise is transferred from one conveyance to another. Since CBP needs to know is who has assumed liability for the in-bond merchandise, the original bonded carrier would file a report of arrival, and the subsequent carrier would submit a new in-bond.
-Sealing: Requirements changed to allow for the transportation of in-bond merchandise with non-bonded merchandise in a container or compartment that is not sealed, if the in-bond merchandise is corded and sealed, or labeled as in-bond merchandise. This will facilitate the filling for less than container load shipments.
These changes were the result of a February 22, 2012 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).
If you have any questions regarding changes in the In-Bond Process, Livingston can help! Please contact either your Livingston account manager or our regulatory affairs department at usregaffairs@livingstonintl.com.