Auction Houses Causing Export Challenges for Census, Official Says
The Census Bureau is still receiving questions about the role of auction houses in export transactions and that “is probably one of the biggest challenges that we're facing right now,” said Omari Wooden, assistant division chief for trade outreach and regulations. Some exporters have struggled to determine whether the houses should be listed as the U.S Principal Party in Interest and have asked Census for more guidance, but the agency has said each case may be different (see 2107010043).
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“One of the things we're seeing is a lot of these auction houses have different levels of complexity,” Wooden said during the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference last week. “Sometimes they're physically located here, sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're electronic auction houses. So there are a lot of wrinkles that we really have to check to figure out to determine those types of scenarios.”
Jim Swanson, director of the cargo and security controls division, for cargo and conveyance security in the CBP Office of Field Operations, said auction houses have also caused his agency some headaches. “That made my life miserable for a while,” he said. He added that the agency finally “came up with a solution” to help CBP officers deal with the houses on the enforcement side, but it can be complicated.
“I don't necessarily work to collect the differential between those parties, but it's very important that we collect it for the record,” Swanson said. “So we end up having to do a lot of mitigation, a lot of moderation.”