Customs broker
profession involving the preparation of customs documentation to ensure that shipments meet all applicable laws to facilitate the import and export of goods
Custom brokers or Customs House Brokerages are working positions that may be employed by or affiliated with freight forwarders, independent businesses, or shipping lines, importers, exporters, trade authorities, and customs brokerage firms.
North America
United States
Customs brokers in the United States prepare and submit documentation to notify or obtain clearance from government agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. They also arrange the transhipment (i.e., local delivery) of merchandise via trucking companies. Many customs brokers specialize in certain goods like apparel, perishables, or clearing the crew and manifest of large cargo vessels. Most are located at major airports and harbors with international traffic. With the advent of the Automated Broker Interface and rules allowing customs brokers to be permitted nationally (as opposed to specific ports), customs brokers no longer need to be located near a port.
Qualifications
US Customs broker licenses are issued and overseen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The requirements governing US Customs broker licenses, including eligibility, are laid out in Title 19, Part 111 of the United States Code of Federal Regulations (19 CFR 111). These regulations permit both individuals and companies to obtain Customs brokers licenses, though the application process and general rules governing each type of license differ from each other.
To be eligible to obtain for a US Customs broker license, an individual applicant must satisfy several requirements: he or she must pass the US Customs Broker License Exam (CBLE) with a score of 75% or higher; on or before the date of application, he or she must be a United States citizen, must have attained the age of 21, and must not be a federal employee; and he or she must be of good moral character.
The public source identifies “Customs broker” as profession involving the preparation of customs documentation to ensure that shipments meet all applicable laws to facilitate the import and export of goods. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Customs, broker and profession.
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This entry incorporates text from “Customs broker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.