A customs rule published on 6 November decides, from 5 January, who may file an import entry, and it tests the filer’s ownership rather than its conduct. A company counts as a U.S. importer of record only if it is based and registered here. It must also show either that at least 51% of its owners are U.S. citizens or green-card holders with control of it, or that it directly owns a significant amount of U.S. land free of debt [1]. That second limb puts a plant on the customs form, because a company that fails the ownership test can still pass on the ground under its building. The quarter the rule landed in was led by imported machines, with capital goods other than cars and trucks the largest source of import growth [2].

At a glance

  • The shift: Ownership and land now decide who may clear a company’s own imports.
  • The number: 32% of foreign filers must change broker or get vetted by 5 January.
  • The risk: The rule never defines “significant” land, so CBP decides case by case.

Who may file

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published the rule on 6 November as an interim final rule, skipping advance notice and comment on foreign-affairs grounds. Comments close on 5 January, the day it starts, and brokers must check their clients by 6 May [1]. I read the short window as a sign that the agency wants evidence for the next rule, not a rewrite of the rule itself.

CBP published the numbers behind the rule with it. Audits from January 2020 to August 2026 found $1.16 billion of lost revenue from foreign filers, and the agency got back $35.7 million, a 3.1% recovery rate against 15.2% for domestic ones [1]. Another $1.01 billion of bills was still unpaid in February [1]. A shell filer that vanishes with the duty bill leaves nothing to seize, so the rule moves the question upstream, to who is allowed to stand behind the entry.

The rule never mentions factories, but its test meets one. Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose 3.4% in the third quarter, imports grew, and computers and peripheral equipment led the gain in equipment [2]. The White House calls the same quarter a shift from finished goods to equipping plants, and lists Audi’s first U.S. factory at $4 billion and 4,500 jobs [3]. Every machine a plant imports needs a filer, and the duty on that machinery is still open after October’s 180-day deferral.

The hard case is a U.S. unit of a foreign maker. CBP will weigh whether the entity is “an instrumentality of a foreign manufacturer without a substantial presence in the United States” [1]. It will also weigh where the entity does business, what it owns here, its sales against its costs and its capital [1]. A unit that fails the ownership limb can still pass on land, but only if it owns a significant amount of it free of debt. A leased plant does not count, and the rule sets no number for “significant”.

By the numbers

  • 32% of foreign filers: must switch to a vetted broker or get vetted themselves before the rule starts [1].
  • $29.16 a bill: the average unpaid amount per entry for a foreign filer, against $22.57 for a domestic one [1].
  • One quarter, one driver: the third quarter grew 3.4% while imports rose, led by capital goods other than cars and trucks [2].

Where this bites

Broker capacity is the first limit. Of the 3,100 brokers that filed entry summaries between October 2020 and February 2026, 21% were vetted through the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT), the agency’s supply-chain security programme, and 78% were not [1]. A foreign filer that has to switch brokers joins a queue that peaks before the May deadline. The broker also has to check the client before it can vouch for it [1].

The paperwork matters as much as the ownership chart. CBP can ask for proof of citizenship, company charters, financial statements, purchase receipts and title deeds [1]. A valid power of attorney is also required now even when the broker acts as the importer of record, which ends the old arrangement where a forwarder’s forms stood in for one [1]. I would also watch who is named on the power of attorney when a supplier files and pays the duty, because that name is what CBP will test.

The catch

My read is that the rule is narrower than its headline. About two-thirds of foreign filers already use a vetted broker, so most of them change a form and little else [1]. The ownership test bites hardest for the foreign-owned plant, and even there the call is a judgment. CBP’s six checks are explicitly loose, and its own center director decides [1].

The rule also starts before its comment period closes, so a court challenge is likelier than it would be for a slower rulemaking. What I keep circling is the imbalance. A domestic operator that owns its site clears as before, while the foreign investor the policy courts may have to prove itself twice, once for the incentives and once for the machines.

Related reading

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