U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: MISSION AND ORGANIZATION

 

U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: MISSION AND   ORGANIZATION

1. Organization 

Mission 

 Before September 11, 2001, the major responsibility of the former U.S. Customs  Service was to administer the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended. When Customs  subsequently merged with other border enforcement agencies to become U.S. Customs  and Border Protection, CBP’s priority mission became homeland security: detecting,  deterring and preventing terrorists and their weapons from entering the United States. 

 This mission fits ideally with CBP’s long-established responsibilities for  protecting and facilitating international trade. CBP retains its traditional enterprise of  protecting the nation's revenue by assessing and collecting duties, taxes and fees incident  to international traffic and trade. Further, by providing procedural guidance to the import  community, CBP enhances and increases compliance with domestic and international  customs laws and regulations. CBP thus helps importers assure that their shipments are  free from terrorist or other malicious interference, tampering, or corruption of containers  or commodities. 

 Today, CBP is the nation’s premiere border enforcement agency, and it  accomplishes this new mandate in part by executing the responsibilities for  which it has always been known: controlling, regulating, and facilitating the  movement of carriers, people, and commodities between the United States and  other nations; protecting the American consumer and the environment against  the introduction of hazardous, toxic or noxious products into the United States;  protecting domestic industry and labor against unfair foreign competition; and  detecting, interdicting, and investigating smuggling and other illegal practices  aimed at illegally entering narcotics, drugs, contraband or other prohibited  articles into the United States. 

CBP is also responsible for detecting, interdicting, and investigating  fraudulent activities intended to avoid the payment of duties, taxes and fees, or  activities meant to evade the legal requirements of international traffic and  trade; and for detecting, interdicting, and investigating illegal international  trafficking in arms, munitions, currency, and acts of terrorism at U.S. ports of  entry.