Article by: Rick Walker, Vice President – TradeInsights, LCB, CCS

With each passing day, it’s looking more and more likely that a potential U.S. government shutdown will begin this weekend. While Congress remains at an impasse on a funding deal, federal departments and agencies have already begun the mandatory process of planning to bring nonessential functions to a halt. Agencies that fall under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have been planning this as well. Every department and agency have its own set of plans and procedures. That guidance includes information on how many employees would get furloughed, which employees are essential and would work without pay, how long it would take to wind down operations in the hours before a shutdown, and which activities would come to a halt.

If you are interested in reading DHS’s procedures, you can find them here. It’s a 76 page document, so let me save you some time and point you to page 38 where it starts to talk about CBP. The good news is that most of CBP’s employees are considered exempt/excepted which means that they will be at work as normal. CBP expects that 59,066 employees will be exempt/excepted, which is roughly 92% of their total workforce of 64,166. As many of you know, it’s not just the Customs clearances to consider nowadays. There are the Partner Government Agency (PGA) clearances that may be required as well. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that 70% of their workforce will be available and that import clearances will not be delayed. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has stated that inspections for import and export activities to prevent the introduction and dissemination of pests into and out of the U.S, including inspections from Hawaii and Puerto Rico to the mainland will continue as normal.

With that said, we aren’t anticipating any major delays or interruptions in the clearance of inbound cargo. For exports, the shutdown will not affect the filing of EEI data, however, there may be impacts to license or permit processing by BIS, OFAC, DDTC, DOT, and/or other agencies. Please know that our teams will be monitoring this all very carefully.

The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) which represents and lobbies for U.S. Customs Brokers and Forwarders has issued a Joint Trade Industry Statement to CBP and Partner Government Agencies (PGA). In their statement, the NCBFAA is advocating for the international community and petitioning CBP and the PGA’s to collaborate closely with each other to ensure trade is facilitated as normal and cargo is able to enter and exit U.S. ports in an efficient manner.

Please contact your V. Alexander account team, or you may also contact our Trade Compliance team at tradeinsights@valexander.com with any questions.