Import Compliance Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Document type: Checklist Practice area: Business and Corporate — Regulatory Jurisdiction: United States Last reviewed: 5 September 2026

Part 1 — Reasonable care self-assessment

19 U.S.C. § 1484 requires the importer of record to use reasonable care. Answer honestly:

Do we have written procedures for classification, valuation, origin, marking, and recordkeeping?
Do we consult a qualified expert — customs counsel or a licensed broker — on questions we cannot resolve?
Do we seek binding rulings where the question is genuinely uncertain and the consequence is meaningful?
Do we follow applicable rulings, court decisions, and CBP guidance?
Do we review our own entries on a sample basis?
Do we train the people whose decisions create customs consequences?
Do we maintain the required records ourselves, for five years?
Is there a named person accountable for import compliance?
If we were audited next month, could we show a functioning program?

Part 2 — The product database

For every SKU, record and maintain:

SKU, commercial description, technical description.
HTSUS classification (10 digit).
Classification basis: GRI applied, section and chapter notes, Explanatory Notes, rulings.
Any binding ruling number relied upon.
Date classified; date last reviewed.
Country of origin.
Origin basis: operations by country, value added, substantial transformation analysis.
Preference claim, if any: agreement, rule of origin, certification on file.
Marking method and location.
Section 301 exposure: list, rate, exclusion status.
Section 232 exposure, including derivative product lists.
AD/CVD order applicability and the scope analysis.
Forced labor exposure: inputs, tiers traced, evidence held.
Suppliers and factory addresses.
Assists provided, with value and apportionment basis.
Duty rate and average annual duty.
Populate by duty spend, not alphabetically. The top twenty percent of SKUs usually carry eighty percent of the duty.

Part 3 — Classification

A trained person classifies, with access to the technical specification.
The General Rules of Interpretation are worked in order; GRI 1 exhausted before GRI 3.
Section and chapter notes checked.
Explanatory Notes consulted.
CBP rulings database searched for the article and for similar articles.
Court of International Trade and Federal Circuit decisions in the heading checked.
The reasoning is written down.
A binding ruling requested under 19 C.F.R. Part 177 where the duty consequence exceeds the company's threshold, the question is close, the product is new and high volume, or a competitor's classification appears to differ.
Classifications reviewed annually and on every HTSUS revision affecting the heading.

Part 4 — The change trigger (the highest-value control)

A classification and origin review is triggered by any of:

A change in materials, fiber content, composition, or formulation.
A change in the manufacturing process.
A change in the manufacturing location, including a new factory for the same supplier.
A change in supplier.
A change to the product's function or configuration.
A new HTSUS revision affecting the heading.
A new CBP ruling on a similar article.
A new or amended AD/CVD order in the category.

Implementation:

A customs review step added to the engineering change order workflow.
A customs review step added to supplier onboarding.
A named recipient and a service level for the review.

Part 5 — Valuation

Transaction value:

Start from the price actually paid or payable.
Add packing costs incurred by the buyer.
Add selling commissions paid by the buyer; confirm any buying commission is documented as such, with the agency relationship evidenced.
Add assists (see Part 6).
Add royalties or license fees paid as a condition of sale — including where the license is with a party other than the seller.
Add proceeds of subsequent resale accruing to the seller.
Exclude international freight and insurance, identified separately on the invoice.
Exclude post-importation construction, erection, assembly, and maintenance, identified separately.
Exclude duties and taxes.
Ask suppliers to itemize; a lump-sum price makes every exclusion an argument.

Related parties:

Determine whether the relationship influenced the price.
Support acceptability by circumstances of sale or by test values.
Understand that a transfer pricing study prepared for income tax is evidence, not automatically sufficient.
Address retroactive transfer pricing adjustments with tax and customs counsel together; an upward adjustment may create a duty obligation.
Document the analysis annually.

First sale:

Establish that the goods were clearly destined for the United States at the first sale.
Establish a bona fide arm's-length first sale.
Obtain and retain the full transaction chain documentation.
Claim it only when the documentation is complete — it is a frequent audit target.

Part 6 — Assists (the most commonly missed addition)

The purchase requisition asks: are we providing anything to this supplier free of charge or below cost — tooling, molds, dies, components, materials, drawings, designs, software, or engineering support?
Supplier onboarding asks the same question.
Every affirmative answer routes to the import team.
Physical items are assists wherever made.
Engineering, development, artwork, design work, and plans are assists only if undertaken outside the United States.
Assists valued at acquisition or production cost, plus transportation to the place of production.
Apportionment method chosen, documented, and applied consistently.
Recorded in the product database.
Procurement, engineering, product development, and quality trained on what an assist is.

Part 7 — Origin

Non-preferential:

Every material input identified, with its origin and cost.
Every operation identified, with where it occurs and what it does.
Value added by country recorded.
Skill, equipment, and complexity documented.
Substantial transformation analysis written: does the last country's operation produce a new and different article with a distinct name, character, or use?
CBP rulings on similar articles and operations checked.
A binding ruling sought where the tariff consequence is large and the analysis is close.

Preferential:

The agreement's product-specific rule identified — tariff shift, regional value content, or both.
Bill of materials with the origin of each input.
The analysis performed and documented; 19 C.F.R. Part 181 for USMCA.
Certification of origin obtained and retained for the required period.

Both:

Recognize that preferential and non-preferential origin can differ for the same product — a good can be USMCA originating and still be a product of China for Section 301 and marking.
Both answers recorded in the product database.

Marking:

Method, location, legibility, indelibility, and permanence confirmed per product.
Container marking requirements confirmed.

Part 8 — The tariff programs

For every product, determine and record:

Section 301 applicability by subheading and origin; the additional rate; exclusion status. See 19 U.S.C. § 2411.
Section 232 applicability, including derivative product lists. See 19 U.S.C. § 1862.
AD/CVD orders in the category, with a scope analysis. See 19 U.S.C. § 1673 and 19 U.S.C. § 1671.
Where scope is uncertain, consider a scope ruling from Commerce.
Quotas and tariff-rate quotas.
Other agency requirements: FDA, USDA, EPA, CPSC, FCC, DOT.

AD/CVD-specific:

Understand that duties are deposited at entry and finally assessed later, with the difference owed with interest.
Track suspension of liquidation; entries stay open, sometimes for years.
Assess circumvention exposure where goods are assembled in a third country from subject-country inputs.
Assess evasion exposure; interim measures can follow an allegation before any final determination.
Confirm continuous bond adequacy.
Treat AD/CVD as a sourcing question, decided before the supply chain is built.

Part 9 — Forced labor

19 U.S.C. § 1307 prohibits importation of goods produced in whole or in part by forced labor.

Exposed inputs identified by sector and region.
Supply chain mapped to the raw material for those inputs.
Transactional documentation collected at each tier: purchase orders, invoices, packing lists, bills of lading, production records, payment records.
Factory-level information obtained: addresses, ownership, workforce, recruitment, wage and hour records.
Every entity screened against the UFLPA Entity List and related designations, at every tier, on a recurring basis.
Supplier agreements require full traceability disclosure, audit rights, cooperation with any CBP inquiry, no unauthorized subcontracting, and indemnity for detention costs.
Audits conducted, including unannounced ones.
Technical evidence obtained where the sector requires it (isotopic or DNA testing for cotton, for example).
A detention response plan exists: export, abandon, or rebut — and the rebuttal package assembled in advance.
Understand the standard: clear and convincing evidence to overcome the rebuttable presumption.

Part 10 — Records and brokers

Records — 19 U.S.C. § 1508 and 19 C.F.R. Part 163:

Five years from entry, or from the activity requiring the record.
The importer holds its own copies; the broker's retention policy is not a defense.
Analytical records retained: classification and origin memoranda, rulings relied upon, valuation analyses, assist calculations, preference support.
Electronic storage conditions met.
Searchable by entry number, SKU, supplier, and date.
Recordkeeping Compliance Program certification considered.

Brokers:

Written agreement covering scope, standards, error correction, and record delivery.
Powers of attorney current.
Written standing instructions per product, drawn from the product database.
Monthly sample review of what the broker filed against what you instructed.
A defined escalation path for questions the broker cannot resolve.

Part 11 — Responding to CBP

CF 28 (Request for Information):

Respond by the deadline; request an extension in writing if needed.
Read the question — it tells you what CBP is examining.
Review the entries internally, under privilege, before responding.
If an error is revealed, scope it and evaluate prior disclosure immediately.

CF 29 (Notice of Action):

Respond within the period for a proposed action.
Calendar the liquidation date for a protest if the action is taken.

Focused Assessment or audit:

Engage counsel immediately.
Establish the scope and the period.
Conduct the internal review and quantify exposure before producing documents.
Present the compliance program: procedures, product database, training records, internal audit results.
Correct what is found; evaluate prior disclosure for anything material.

Part 12 — Prior disclosure

Under 19 U.S.C. § 1592(c)(4), a valid prior disclosure reduces the maximum from up to two times the lost duties (negligence) or four times (gross negligence) to interest, and from the domestic value (fraud) to one times the lost duties.

Scope the error under privilege: products, entries, period, cause, duty consequence.
Scope the disclosure broadly enough — a disclosure covering one product line does not protect another with the same error.
File a shell disclosure to establish the date if quantification is incomplete, identifying the class of merchandise, the nature of the error, and the entries or period.
Supply full details within thirty days (extendable).
Complete the entry-by-entry calculation of the loss of duties.
Tender the actual loss of duties with the disclosure or within thirty days of demand.
Describe the remediation and the corrected process.
Move fast — the disclosure must precede commencement of a formal investigation of which you had knowledge.

Part 13 — Protests and duty recovery

Liquidation dates calendared for every entry.
Protest filed within 180 days after liquidation under 19 U.S.C. § 1514 — no extension available.
Further review requested where the legal question warrants.
Accelerated disposition requested if CBP does not act; deemed denial after thirty days permits suit in the Court of International Trade under 19 U.S.C. § 1515.
Post summary correction used for errors found before liquidation.
Reliquidation under 19 U.S.C. § 1520 considered for clerical errors and mistakes of fact.
Drawback under 19 U.S.C. § 1313 claimed on exported or destroyed merchandise.
Foreign trade zone, bonded warehouse, and temporary importation options evaluated.
An audit for overpayments conducted — most programs look only for underpayments, and the overpayments are frequently larger.

Part 14 — Lawful mitigation, and what is not

Legitimate:

Verify the classification.
Unbundle non-dutiable elements on the invoice.
Evaluate first sale where documentation supports it.
Claim available preferences.
Claim drawback.
Use zones, bonded warehouses, and TIB.
Pursue exclusions where a process is open.
Restructure the supply chain genuinely, where the new operations actually substantially transform.
Tariff engineering — the article as imported must genuinely be what the classification describes.

Not legitimate:

Transshipment with no meaningful processing.
Minimal processing described as substantial transformation.
Undervaluation, double invoicing, or unreported payments.
Misdescription to obtain a lower rate or avoid an AD/CVD order.
Splitting shipments to stay under a threshold.

When a supplier proposes a "tariff solution":

Where are the goods actually produced?
What operations occur in each country?
What will the invoices say, and is it accurate?
If it cannot be explained in terms that satisfy the origin and valuation rules, it does not — and the liability is yours.

Part 15 — The recurring calendar

Monthly:

Broker filing review, sample basis.
Entry summary anomaly review.
Liquidation and protest deadline tracking.

Quarterly:

Internal entry audit against the product database.
Duty spend analysis by classification and origin.
New CBP rulings in the company's headings reviewed.
Entity list screening of the supply chain.

Annually:

Full product database review.
Written procedures review.
HTSUS revision impact assessment.
Related-party valuation analysis.
Training for procurement, engineering, logistics, and finance.
Broker performance review.
Records retention audit.
Reasonable care self-assessment (Part 1).