§1592a Special provisions regarding certain violations

Summary

The Secretary of the Treasury can publish a list of foreign producers, makers, suppliers, sellers, exporters, or other people outside the U.S. customs area when Customs has made a penalty claim against them under the customs fraud law. If a petition was filed and a final decision was reached after all administrative appeals, that person’s name can be listed. The list covers four kinds of wrongdoing: using or giving false papers that hide the true country of origin of clothing or textiles; using or giving fake visas, licenses, permits, bills of lading, or similar papers; making or selling clothing or textiles with false country labels; and helping ship goods through another country to hide their origin or to dodge import limits or voluntary quotas. A named person can ask to be removed. If they have not committed any of those violations for at least 3 years after their name went on the list, the Secretary must remove them at the next list publication. After a name appears, importers who bring in textiles or apparel linked to that person must prove they used reasonable care to make sure the papers, packaging, and labels correctly show origin. Reasonable care cannot mean simply relying only on the named person. If Customs finds the goods are not from the claimed country, lack of reasonable care is considered when deciding if the importer broke another customs rule (section 1484(a)). The President, with advice from Commerce and Treasury, can publish a yearly list (by March 31) of countries where illegal transshipment or quota-evasion of textiles or apparel has happened and where the country did not cooperate in stopping it. Countries can be taken off the list if they later show good faith cooperation. For goods labeled as coming from any country on that list, importers must show they used reasonable care to verify the true country of origin. The word “country” here includes foreign countries, territories, and overseas dependent territories or possessions.