Statement 2008

Supporting Statement

Request for Information

1651-0023

A. Justification

1. Under 19 U.S.C. 1500 and 1401a the appropriate Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer shall appraise merchandise by ascertaining its value, fix the classification and rate of duty, fix the amount of duty to be paid, liquidate the entry of the merchandise and notify the importer of such liquidation. On occasions when the invoice or other documentation does not provide sufficient information for appraisement or classification, the CBP Officer requests additional information through the use of Form CBP-28. This form is completed by CBP personnel requesting additional information and the importers respond in the format of their choice. The statutes and regulations authorizing this collection of information necessary for proper appraisement include 19 CFR Part 12, 151.11.

2. Form CBP-28 is used by CBP personnel to request additional information from importers when the invoice or other documentation provide insufficient information for CBP to carry out its responsibilities. CBP personnel complete the form requesting additional information from the importers. If this information was not obtained, CBP would not be able to carry out the responsibilities under 19 U.S.C. 1401a and 1500 and could not process certain merchandise. The only way to reduce or eliminate the use of Form CBP-28 would be for the importers to always provide complete information on the invoice or entry document.

3. CBP is currently developing an electronic, paperless version of the CF-28 within our Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). It is expected to reduce paper and mailing costs associated with the current form. The automation of this form is expected to be completed by 2012.

4. This is a request for additional information that was not provided by the importer on an invoice or other entry documentation. If the information was provided on the invoice or entry documentation, there would be no need to use Form CBP-28. This information is not duplicated elsewhere.

5. No special consideration has been given to small businesses or entities. Any importer who fails to provide sufficient information will be requested to provide additional information.

6. This information collection cannot be conducted less frequently because the request is only made when the importers fail to provide sufficient information at the outset of the entry process.

1651-0023

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7. This information collection is conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(c)(2).

8. Public comments were solicited through two Federal Register notices published on January 23, 2008 (Volume 73, Page 3981) and on March 23 (Volume 73, Page 15767). As of this submission no comments have been received.

9. There is no offer of a monetary or material value for this information request.

10. The data that is provided to CBP is privileged or confidential and as such cannot be released under 5 U.S.C. 552 (FOIA).

11. There are no questions of a personal or sensitive nature in this information collection.

12. The Estimated Annualized Burden on the Public. The estimated reporting burden for this information collection is 60,000 hours per year, based on 60,000 respondents who average an estimated 60 minutes per response.

Estimated Annualized Cost to the Public. The total cost annually to the respondents is $1,782,000 based on 60,000 burden hours at an average salary of $29.70 per hour.

13. Estimated Record Keeping Burden on the Public. There is no recordkeeping burden associated with this collection.

Estimated Capitalization Cost Burden on the Public. There are no annualized capitalization cost associated with this collection.

14. Estimated Cost to the Federal Government. The estimated annual cost to the Federal Government associated with collecting, processing, and analyzing the information collected is $1,050,805. This is based on 30,029 hours at an average annual cost of $35.00 per hour.

15. There are no changes to this collection of information.

16. This information collection will not be published for statistical purposes.

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17. CBP does not request an exception from putting the expiration date on this form.

18. CBP does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection. See attached Item 19 of Form OMB 83-I.

B. No statistical methods were employed.