On 3 June 2026 President Trump signed an executive order titled “Strengthening Customs Enforcement”. It sets no new duty rate. What it does is rebuild the rules for who may act as an importer of record into the United States, and raise the penalties for getting a customs entry wrong. It also tells US Customs and Border Protection to go harder after undervaluation, misclassification, and disguised origin (ArentFox Schiff, 4 June 2026). For anyone buying from China and importing into the United States, this is a liability story.
It arrives about three weeks after the largest customs-fraud settlement in US history. In May 2026 the Department of Justice announced that Perfectus Aluminum and four affiliated companies agreed to pay $549.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that they evaded anti-dumping and countervailing duties on aluminium extrusions from China (Cleary Gottlieb, 13 May 2026). The method was blunt. More than 2.2 million extrusions were spot-welded into shapes that passed as finished pallets, declared as pallets that escaped the duty, and never sold to a single pallet buyer. The company had already been ordered to pay about $1.83 billion in criminal restitution after a 2021 conviction. The civil settlement sits on top of that.
How the new order changes the math
The order gives the Department of Homeland Security 180 days to rewrite importer-of-record eligibility. Every importer of record will need a minimum level of US assets or bonding, higher bond coverage, and far more disclosure: beneficial ownership, business affiliations, expected volumes, and supply-chain detail down to the manufacturer's product identifier (ArentFox Schiff, 4 June 2026). Foreign importers of record, the arrangement many overseas sellers use to keep their own name on the customs entry and stay out of CBP's reach, lose the low-oversight lane they have relied on.
It also lifts the floor on punishment. Within 90 days CBP must set a minimum penalty of at least half the assessed amount and remove mitigation entirely for repeat offenders. Customs brokers who keep filing for non-compliant clients are named in the text and face maximum penalties. The deadlines run from 45 days to a year, so none of this bites tomorrow. The direction is set.
Why it lands on you, not your supplier
The importer of record is the legal owner of the customs declaration. If the declared value is too low or the goods are misdescribed, the importer is the party that signed the false statement, whoever first suggested it. In a separate case the DOJ settled this year, Ceratizit USA paid $54.4 million over tungsten carbide that was declared as made in Taiwan but was actually produced in China and routed through Taiwan to dodge Section 301 duties (US Department of Justice). A Chinese supplier who offers to “handle the tariff” by routing goods through a third country, or by splitting the invoice to drop the declared value, is handing you their risk under your name. The Vietnam Section 301 probe shows how a country swap that looks like a saving turns into exactly this exposure.
The Department of Justice now treats misclassification, undervaluation, origin masking, and duty evasion as False Claims Act conduct, which carries triple damages (Diaz Trade Law, 22 May 2026). Cases often begin with a whistleblower, and the whistleblower can be a competitor or a trade body, not only an employee. In the Perfectus case one of the parties that brought the claim was the Aluminum Extruders Council, an industry association that collected 17.5% of the recovery. The fraud statute reaches back as far as ten years, so a clean-looking entry from several years ago is not safely behind you.
This is a US measure. The agencies named, CBP and the DOJ, and the executive order itself apply to imports into the United States. The principle travels. The EU's customs authorities and the UK's HMRC both pursue importers for undervaluation and origin fraud, and both put the liability on the declarant of record. Wherever you import, the paperwork is yours to defend.
What to check before your next order ships
Confirm you are the importer of record. Make sure your own company is named on the entry, and that you hold the actual customs declaration rather than only a commercial invoice from the supplier.
Match the declaration to the goods. Check that the HS code and the declared value describe what is really in the carton, and keep the test reports, costing, and origin evidence that back them up.
Refuse paperwork “help” that lowers the duty. Treat any supplier offer to reclassify, re-route, or re-invoice a shipment as a transfer of criminal and civil liability onto your company.
What makes duty fraud possible in the first place is distance. The importer cannot see what the factory wrote on the export documents or what a forwarder filed at the border. Full Production Management closes that gap, with a verified agent on the ground, the real origin and value documented before the goods move, and a record you can stand behind in an audit.
Sources: ArentFox Schiff, The White House Rewrites the Rulebook for Importers of Record (Executive Order “Strengthening Customs Enforcement”, signed 3 June 2026), 4 June 2026; National Law Review, US Trade Update: Customs Enforcement Executive Order and New Section 301 Actions, 4 June 2026; Cleary Gottlieb, $549.5 Million FCA Settlement Resolves Customs Fraud and Duty Evasion Allegations Involving Chinese Aluminum Extrusions, 13 May 2026; Diaz Trade Law, The Largest Customs Fraud Settlement from the DOJ Trade Fraud Task Force: $549.5 Million, 22 May 2026; US Department of Justice, Ceratizit USA LLC Agrees to Pay $54.4M to Settle False Claims Act Allegations Relating to Evaded Customs Duties.