BY TOBY GOOLEY, MANAGING EDITOR
TRADE MANAGEMENT
technologyreview
paving the way to
“ 10+ 2” compliance
Finding it tough to meet the Importer Security Filing ( 10+ 2) mandate?
Here are some ideas that may make the road a little smoother.
WHEN U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION
(CBP) unveiled its Importer Security Filing (ISF) rule,
many people suspected that their business operations were
about to change in a big way. Nearly a year after the rule’s
implementation, it’s abundantly clear that their assessment
was right on the mark.
The ISF rule, which is intended to help CBP screen incoming ocean containers for security risks, is popularly known as
“ 10+ 2”—a name derived from the number of data elements
importers ( 10) and ocean carriers ( 2) must provide to CBP
before a U.S.-bound container is loaded on board a ship.
To comply with the rule, which CBP began enforcing in
January, importers have been forced to make a number of procedural changes. They must collect more data than before—
often from different parties than in the past—and report it to
CBP much earlier and in a different format than they used to.
The road to compliance has been a bumpy one; these and
many other ISF-related changes have given rise to a host of
questions, complications, and procedural errors that have
affected almost every importer at some point. Addressing
them often requires extremely detailed, technical knowledge, but there are a few general steps you can take to avoid
some of the obstacles. In this follow-up to our July 2010 article (“‘ 10+ 2’ + technology = progress”), we share six tips that
may make your path to 10+ 2 compliance a little smoother.
1. Read CBP’s “ISF Frequently Asked Questions.” This 63-
page download is required reading for anyone who’s
involved in 10+ 2 compliance—not just those in import
operations but also technical staff who are responsible for
software modification and data formatting. The document,
updated in July 2010, explains what importers should do
