U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published a CSMS message regarding In Transit scenarios and effective / expiration dates. Please see the below examples provided by CBP.
ANY COUNTRY
9903.01.28: Articles the product of any country that were (1) loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in-transit on the final mode of transport prior to entry into the United States before 12:01 a.m. EDT on April 5, 2025, AND (2) are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. EDT on April 5, 2025.
To prevent importers from abusing the exception for goods that were in-transit before April 5, 2025 when it is no longer realistic due to the passage of time, CBP will permit heading 9903.01.28 to be declared only for goods that are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. EDT on April 5, 2025, and before 12:01 a.m. EDT on June 16, 2025.
COUNTRY WITH SPECIFIC RATE OF DUTY
9903.01.25: Articles the product of the countries that have an additional country-specific rate of duty, identified in 9903.01.43 – 9903.01.76, that were (1) loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in-transit on the final mode of transport on or after 12:01 a.m. EDT April 5, 2025, and before 12:01 a.m. EDT April 9, 2025, AND (2) are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, before 12:01 a.m. EDT on June 16, 2025, are subject to the 10% additional rate in lieu of the country-specific rate of duty. Articles to which this in-transit scenario applies must be reported under 9903.01.25.
CHINA
9903.01.25: Articles the product of China, identified in 9903.01.63, that were (1) loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in transit on the final mode of transport on or after 12:01 a.m. EDT April 9, 2025, and before 12:01 a.m. EDT April 10, 2025, AND (2) are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, before 12:01 a.m. EDT on June 16, 2025, are subject to the 10% additional rate in lieu of the country-specific rate of duty. Articles to which this in transit scenario applies must be reported under 9903.01.25.
The updated guidance provides examples of load and in transit scenarios, as well as for a shipment to have a realistic chance of qualifying for the in-transit exceptions, the entry process must likely be completed before June 16, 2025. Shipments requiring entry on or after that date are generally not expected to qualify.
The link to the CBP CSMS message may be found here.
CBP requires importers to use reasonable care when confirming whether a shipment qualifies for an in-transit exemption. CBP will be reviewing the above scenarios and will be reaching out to Importers who may need to correct their entries.
JSC urges importers to review their shipments / entries that may be impacted and proactively correct entries transmitted.
If you have any questions, please contact our Compliance Team or your JSC account supervisor.
