U.S. Customs & Border Protection (“CBP”) will implement significant modifications to the Reconciliation Program, first announced by CBP on December 12, 2016, effective February 24, 2018.

Included among these changes to take effect on February 24th are:

• the elimination of blanket entry flagging,

• a simplification of the application process and

• changes to the reconciliation transmission procedures.

The most immediate change for current reconciliation participants relates to the way CBP entries will be identified, or “flagged,” for reconciliation. CBP will no longer automatically “blanket flag” entries for reconciliation. Instead, importers will be responsible for flagging their own entries. Therefore, it is critical that reconciliation participants coordinate with their customs brokers to ensure that any entry subject to reconciliation reporting will be appropriately flagged by the broker. Brokers (and self-filers) will need to either manually flag each entry summary or program their own software to perform blanket flagging.

Additional modifications include changes to the way new participants will join the reconciliation program and the manner in which reconciliation entries will be filed. Details of the changes (which were first announced in December 2016) can be found at: https://www.gdlsk.com/changes-to-the-reconciliation-program-set-for-january-2017/