US audits steel importers for regulatory compliance

Customs conducts regular import checks on all goods to establish import compliance levels.

Compliance Measurement develops statistics for both “Letter of the Law” (LOL) and “Major Trade Discrepancies” (MTD) statistics. They cover a wide range of topics including classification, cost, labeling, special programs, and AD /CVD, among others.

Each year, import data is requested from customs for two chapters of tariffs on primary metal products, chapters 72 and 73 of the HTS. In fiscal 2017 ending September 30, 2017, the chapter 72/73 MTD compliance rate was 97.80%. The LOL indicator was 96.46%.

This reflects another decline in compliance scores for both criteria compared to the previous year.

Problems with Section 232 and Section 301 records have allegedly contributed to the reduction in imports.