U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published today a Federal Register Notice soliciting additional participants for the Section 321 Data Pilot, which allows the agency to partner with private sector supply chain actors to identify and target high-risk shipments for inspection while expediting clearance of legitimate trade flows.
The Section 321 Data Pilot is a public-private partnership that mitigates risk and expedites legitimate low value e-commerce shipments. These shipments are entered under de minimis procedures which allow small packages valued at $800 or less to enter the United States tax and duty-free.
Expanding participation in the Section 321 Data Pilot benefits both government and industry by increasing the amount of advanced data CBP can use to identify, disrupt, and deter illegal practices like counterfeit goods that threaten legitimate businesses, while creating additional opportunities to leverage and explore new technology to facilitate legal trade flows. So far, the pilot has resulted in faster and more accurate risk assessment and adjudication for CBP and fewer CBP holds. By increasing pilot participation, the agency expects these benefits will increase as well. CBP estimates that 85% of all shipments entering the United States are small packages valued at less than $800.
“CBP has processed more than 380 million shipments via the Section 321 Data Pilot since it was initiated in August 2019. Section 321 Data Pilot information has enabled faster and more accurate risk assessment by CBP and fewer holds for the pilot participants who are submitting additional data elements, such as seller information, product pictures, and other details,” said Executive Director of CBP’s Trade Policy and Programs, Brandon Lord. “CBP is excited to expand the pilot, as bringing on board additional partners will allow the agency to test new technologies and the collection of non-traditional data elements to identify additional facilitation benefits for the trade community and CBP.”
The Section 321 Data Pilot was implemented on August 22, 2019, to test risk segmentation benefits of accepting advance data from e-commerce supply chain partners, including nine voluntary pilot participants from a wide range of e-commerce supply chain actors: Amazon, eBay, Zulily, FedEx, DHL and UPS, technology firm PreClear, and logistics providers XB Fulfillment and BoxC Logistics.
New and existing pilot volunteers must transmit certain required data elements to CBP and will have the flexibility to transmit optional data elements as they are able to test the viability of sharing additional information. There is no limit to the number of volunteers CBP will accept for the expanded pilot, which will end in August 2025 unless further extended. To volunteer to participate in the pilot, or for more information about the pilot or e-commerce in general, please contact ecommerce@cbp.dhs.gov.
