CBP states in a Federal Register notice that Bennett Testing Service, Inc. (Rahway, NJ), has been approved to gauge and accredited to test petroleum and certain petroleum products for customs purposes for the next three years as of August 28, 2025. The next triennial inspection date will be scheduled for August 2028.
CBP's Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Center described enforcement cases in which importers evaded duties through undervaluation, misclassification and illegal transshipment. In one case, 12 Patek Philippe watches shipped from St. Maarten were undervalued at about $500 each against a value of over $1.9 million, drawing $21,000 in duties, a $108,000 penalty and over $86,740 in unpaid duties from prior shipments. In another, plastic food containers from China classified as household goods at 3.4% instead of the 3% commercial rate left the importer owing $50 million, and four importers of the same product owe nearly $39 million combined.
CBP states that its officers at John F. Kennedy International Airport worked with Homeland Security Investigations and the Internal Revenue Service in a multiyear trade fraud investigation that led to two arrests, the seizure of $13.36 million in gold, and the identification of a suspected $86.47 million in evaded duties. CBP says examinations revealed a suspected scheme to route gold jewelry shipments through a foreign intermediary and return them to the United States as "U.S. goods returned," reducing duties owed.