The June 3, 2026 Strengthening Customs Enforcement order means importer identity, bond sufficiency, foreign IOR structures, valuation, HTS classification, country of origin, and supply-chain records will face more scrutiny. Importers that changed sourcing, IOR setup, invoice structure, declared value, or origin after tariff increases should review those positions now, document support, and involve trade counsel where prior disclosure may be appropriate.
What changed on June 3, 2026?
On June 3, 2026, the White House issued Executive Order 14411, Strengthening Customs Enforcement. The order directs the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to revise importer eligibility rules, increase vetting, expand disclosures, strengthen bonding requirements, and revise penalty mitigation standards.
The order is not a finished CBP regulation. Many details will come through rulemaking, guidance, and potential legislation. But the direction is clear: CBP is being told to make importers easier to identify, easier to hold accountable, and harder to use as low-asset shells for tariff avoidance.
The White House fact sheet highlights the same themes: higher bonding, heightened foreign IOR requirements, only U.S. IORs filing informal entries, a good-standing requirement, expanded vetting, new disclosures, and a 50% minimum penalty floor in revised mitigation standards.
The importer-level changes to watch
| Area | What the order targets | Importer action |
|---|---|---|
| Importer of record | Importer identity, eligibility, good standing, beneficial ownership, domestic assets, and affiliate history. | Confirm the real party acting as IOR is properly registered, documented, and able to support its role. |
| Foreign IORs | Foreign IORs filing informal entries, relying on continuous bonds, or filing without a CTPAT-validated path. | Review whether your foreign-IOR model still works if CBP requires formal entry, tighter bonds, or a CTPAT-validated licensed broker. |
| Bonding | Minimum bond coverage and tangible domestic asset requirements for formal and informal entries. | Recalculate bond exposure against actual duties, tariff layers, volume, and risk profile. |
| Disclosures | Ownership, beneficial ownership, anticipated import volumes, domestic assets, foreign tax identifiers, supplier data, product identifiers, and production-method details. | Collect the documents your broker, counsel, and CBP would need before the request arrives. |
| Penalty mitigation | Revised mitigation standards, including a minimum penalty floor and less flexibility for repeat offenders. | Identify potential errors early enough to evaluate correction or prior disclosure before a CBP investigation begins. |
Why tariff-driven import structures are now higher risk
Tariffs changed importer behavior. When rates rise, companies often look for ways to reduce duty exposure: shifting the importer of record, changing Incoterms, using DDP, routing through affiliates, updating HTS codes, changing declared origin, separating service charges, or rethinking who appears as the buyer on the invoice.
Some of those changes are legitimate. A product may have been misclassified before. A manufacturing process may have moved in a legally meaningful way. A first-sale or related-party structure may be supportable. But CBP will not treat a lower entered value, new HTS code, or new country-of-origin claim as valid simply because it appears on entry documents.
Snell & Wilmer’s June 22 analysis correctly flags the practical risk: importers that changed practices after tariff increases should review DDP terms, foreign suppliers acting as IOR, nominal U.S. importer entities, split invoices, unsupported HTS changes, and unsupported origin changes. See their publication, New Customs Enforcement Order Gives Importers a Limited Window to Review Tariff-Driven Import Practices.
Seven things importers should review now
1. Who is actually acting as importer of record?
Map each import lane to the legal entity listed as IOR. Confirm the IOR has a valid importer number, current CBP registration, sufficient bond coverage or assets, and records showing it exercises reasonable care. If a foreign supplier, affiliate, marketplace entity, or nominal U.S. company is acting as IOR, treat that as a priority review item.
2. Are DDP and foreign-supplier IOR structures defensible?
Delivered duty paid can be legitimate, but it becomes risky when the foreign seller has little U.S. presence, weak records, or no realistic way for CBP to collect duties and penalties. Importers using DDP should confirm who controls the customs data, who pays the broker, who holds the bond, and who can produce records if CBP asks.
3. Do entered values match the full price actually paid?
Review commercial invoices, purchase orders, wire records, service invoices, royalties, assists, tooling, commissions, design charges, and management fees. Separate labels do not decide customs value. CBP looks at what each payment covers and whether it is part of the price paid or payable for imported merchandise.
4. Did HTS codes change after tariffs increased?
A tariff-driven classification change needs a product-based rationale: product design, material composition, function, principal use, chapter notes, rulings, and the General Rules of Interpretation. If the product did not change and the support file did not change, the new lower-duty code is vulnerable.
5. Did country of origin change without a production change?
Country-of-origin claims should match the manufacturing facts. If goods moved from China to Vietnam, Mexico, Turkey, or another country, preserve production records showing substantial transformation, tariff-shift qualification, or other applicable origin analysis. New paperwork alone is not enough.
6. Can you reconcile U.S. entry data against foreign export data?
The order directs CBP to seek more information about foreign exporters and supply chains. If foreign export declarations, supplier invoices, packing lists, or accounting records show a different value, description, origin, or manufacturer than the U.S. entry, that inconsistency needs an explanation before CBP asks for it.
7. Is a prior disclosure discussion needed?
Prior disclosure is a legal decision. A customs broker can help identify entry patterns, quantify duty exposure, and collect records; trade counsel should advise whether and how to disclose. The key is timing: once CBP has begun a formal investigation or the importer has knowledge of one, the opportunity may narrow or close.
Importer review checklist
If you made tariff-driven changes in 2025 or 2026, pull a sample of recent entries and ask five questions:
- Does the importer of record reflect the real party responsible for the import?
- Does the bond match the duty exposure and shipment volume?
- Can the declared value be reconciled to invoices, payments, and service charges?
- Can each HTS and origin change be supported by product facts, not just tariff savings?
- Would your broker, internal team, and trade counsel agree on the same story if CBP issued a CF-28 tomorrow?
How this affects foreign companies importing into the U.S.
The order is especially important for non-U.S. companies acting as foreign importers of record. CBP has been directed to restrict foreign IORs from filing informal entries and to add formal-entry requirements, including restrictions on continuous-bond use unless CBP determines revenue is protected and compliance is assured.
Foreign companies can still import into the United States, but the setup has to be cleaner: CBP registration, CAIN or other importer number, power of attorney, bond strategy, licensed customs broker, and documentation of the real transaction. See our guide to Foreign Importer of Record in 2026 for the foreign-IOR checklist.
What Greenwich Mercantile can review
We help importers identify operational customs risk before it becomes a CBP problem. A practical review usually starts with the last three to five entries in a lane and expands if we see patterns.
- Importer-of-record and bond setup
- CBP Form 5106 / CAIN registration gaps
- HTS classification support
- Country-of-origin support
- Entered value and invoice structure
- Tariff-stacking exposure
- Documents needed for trade counsel to evaluate prior disclosure
We do not provide legal advice and do not replace trade counsel for prior disclosure decisions. We do help importers get the entry data, broker files, and operational record organized so the right decision can be made quickly.
The bottom line
The June 3 order is not just another policy announcement. It is a signal that CBP will scrutinize importer identity, bonding, valuation, origin, classification, and supply-chain documentation more aggressively — especially where importers changed practices after tariff increases.
If your company changed importer structure, sourcing country, declared value, HTS code, supplier terms, DDP arrangements, or invoice structure in response to tariffs, now is the time to review the file. The importer who finds the issue first has more options than the importer who waits for CBP to find it.
Sources: White House Executive Order 14411, “Strengthening Customs Enforcement,” June 3, 2026; White House Fact Sheet, “President Donald J. Trump Strengthens Customs Enforcement,” June 3, 2026; Snell & Wilmer, “New Customs Enforcement Order Gives Importers a Limited Window to Review Tariff-Driven Import Practices,” June 22, 2026. This article is operational guidance for importers and is not legal advice.