Shippers warned: don't under-value US exports to avoid tariffs – 'CBP will catch you'
Forwarders are warning shippers not to under-declare the value of goods they export to the US as they look to mitigate the cost of tariffs.
Lee Griffiths, MD of NNR, said all employees were told to “completely avoid any breach of the law – follow culture before profit”, stressing that any such requests made to the company would be “met with a flat ‘no’”.
He added that NNR, “luckily, has several experts” on both tariffs and customs. They had been busy recently, with NNR’s US division running regular webinars that attracted strong participation, with 200 customers having signed in for the latest live chat.
Director of customs and trade services at DSV Pete Mento urged cargo owners to make customs compliance “the foundation of all your decisions”.
Since the onset of the tariff war, he said, he had received multiple suggestions on how to bypass additional import costs, including having suppliers “invoice for half what we intended to pay, but actually pay them what we agreed, after the import”.
Mr Mento wrote on LinkedIn: “Please don’t make foolish changes to avoid tariffs. CBP will catch you. They just will. And when they do, the impact will be nothing short of brutal. Talk to your broker, make compliance the foundation of all your decisions.
“Lastly, advise your suppliers and leadership that tough times won’t last for ever, and that they don’t give you licence to make bad decisions.”
Despite warnings against under-declaration, numbers provided by customs consultant Tom Gould suggest there is a rise in the practice: in January, 30 audits by CBP identified an additional $71m in duty due on imports, this dropped to $2.9m in February.
Alessio Bruni, a co-founder of Heroes, an advisory for SME e-commerce firms, gave an indication of the scale of the problem, claiming that one forwarder had offered to under-report the value of a shipment by 86%.
He said: “These numbers are mind-blowing. These freight forwarders would bring in products into the country and under-report the true value of the goods by 86%. It’s the equivalent of carrying two large suitcases full of contraband and going through the green ‘Nothing to Declare’ gate at the airport.
“If you get busted, you are screwed. Too many sellers seem to think this is a no-brainer.”
Mr Bruni warned that, with fines being two to three times the true value of the goods, the company could end up paying $750,000.
