---
title: CBP's proposed rule on low-value shipments
description: CBP published a proposed rule on October 8, 2026, at 91 FR 64532. It is not in force, and nothing changes for your shipments today.
image: https://www.china-agent.com/hubfs/palletized-cartons-ready-for-container-loading-china.jpg
---

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# CBP's proposed rule on low-value shipments

![Shipments at a US port](https://www.china-agent.com/hubfs/palletized-cartons-ready-for-container-loading-china.jpg)

- October 21, 2026

![Eldad Shashua](https://www.china-agent.com/hubfs/Eldad%20Shashua.jpeg)

[Eldad Shashua](https://www.china-agent.com/blog/author/eldad-shashua)

 

CBP published a proposed rule on October 8, 2026, at 91 FR 64532. It is not in force, and nothing changes for your shipments today. If CBP finalizes it as written, an informal entry of $2,500 or less filed as entry type 11, or as the new mail entry type 13, would not be released without a basic importation and entry bond or a cash deposit. Anyone can comment until December 7, 2026. The docket is USCBP-2026-0298.

I've worked on the importer's side in China since 2009. What I see is a wider push for more compliance across every part of the supply chain, and the way I read it, this proposal is one more step in that direction. Everyone who touches a shipment is expected to stand behind what they declare. That includes the actual factory that makes your goods, the seller, the forwarder and you, the importer. That is my reading. CBP's own reasons are in the notice, and I cover them below.

Getting ready is manageable. Most of it comes down to two conversations. One is with your broker, about the bond and about who the importer of record is. The other is with your supplier, about the actual factory that makes your goods.

## Why CBP wrote it

The de minimis exemption is already suspended. CBP anticipates that the volume of low-value shipments will remain problematically high as those goods shift onto informal entry, such as type 11. The notice says the proposal is there to protect the revenue and to identify health and safety violations and intellectual property violations. It also names illicit drugs, including fentanyl. For an ordinary type 11 shipment, what changes is the paperwork. A bond or a cash deposit would have to be in place before release, and the entry would be filed earlier.

Today, entry is generally due within 15 calendar days after the goods land. CBP says that window poses problems for high-volume, low-value shipments, because it does not provide CBP with sufficient time for risk assessment and targeting before the goods arrive. Type 11 and mail type 13 would have to be filed electronically upon or prior to importation.

## What the bond would cost

Proposed 19 CFR 143.29 says a shipment of $2,500 or less entered on CBP Forms 3461 and 7501, or on Form 7501, will not be released unless a single transaction bond or a continuous bond is on file, with the conditions of a basic importation and entry bond. An approved corporate surety has to secure it, or cash deposits can. Mail entries would get the same rule.

A bond costs money. You pay a premium to a surety. CBP's notice, using broker websites, puts the average premium for a $50,000 continuous bond at $441.52. For type 11 entries that had no bond, CBP's estimate averages $3.99 an entry. Where a single transaction bond was the cheaper option, the average was $55.57 an entry. Where a continuous bond was cheaper, it was $1.95. Your surety sets your premium, so do not treat $3.99 as a quote.

CBP counts about 2.3 million type 11 entries with no bond from August 1, 2025, to July 31, 2026. On mail, CBP says a bond is already required, so it does not expect a new bond cost for type 13.

## Who would be the importer of record

Proposed 19 CFR 143.26(a) lets the owner or purchaser enter a shipment of $2,500 or less, using reasonable care. A licensed customs broker can also enter it when designated. The same section says: "A consignee that is not the owner or purchaser must appoint a customs broker to act as the importer of record for the entry."

That covers any consignee that is not the owner or purchaser. CBP's examples are a foreign postal operator, the United States Postal Service, a freight forwarder, or a carrier. In that case the broker's bond is the one obligated. If your forwarder is only the consignee, the broker would be the importer of record.

Some shipments of $800 or less have an exception from this broker requirement. The preamble says shipments exempt from duty under 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(A) and (B) would keep the current rules, and bona fide gift procedures stay as they are.

CBP says it cannot certify that the postal changes would avoid a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The notice says the rise of e-commerce, with people making international purchases online, led to drastic increases in low-value informal entries of $2,500 or less.

## The name at the factory

On type 13, CBP would require the shipper or sender, "the party causing the goods to be shipped," with the address. On type 11, a final recipient who is distinct from the ultimate consignee would have to be named, with the address. Proposed 19 CFR 143.22 would let CBP require formal entry for goods from one manufacturer or producer, across shipments.

Most suppliers are good. Ask before the order, and they will write down the actual factory that makes your goods. That conversation usually goes best face to face. The gap to close is a trading company on the invoice while a different factory makes the goods. Match the purchase order to the shipper your broker will report, before the goods leave the factory.

## If a bond condition is broken

Proposed 19 CFR 113.62(n)(6) would set liquidated damages for these shipments at the value of the merchandise or $1,000, whichever is greater. For restricted or prohibited merchandise, or alcoholic beverages, the figure is three times the value or $1,000, whichever is greater. The proposed text applies that minimum only to defaults outside certain bond conditions (conditions (a), (g), (i), (j), (k)(2), (k)(3), (l), and (m) of 19 CFR 113.62). A claim goes out on CBP Form 5955A. The notice says an importer can petition for relief within 60 calendar days of the date that form is issued.

On mail, a shipment of $2,500 or less still not properly entered 15 days after importation would be deemed voluntarily abandoned. USPS would process it, which may mean return or destruction.

## While comments are open

Ask your broker if the shipment is type 11 or mail type 13, and whether a bond is already on file. Settle the importer of record before a forwarder, a carrier, the Postal Service, or a foreign post is named as consignee.

The notice sets no effective date, and comments close December 7, 2026. CBP's cost tables assume 2027 as the year a final rule would take effect. That is a modeling assumption, and the notice does not set it as a date. CBP generally intends the provisions of this proposal to be severable from each other, and it expects to say more about that in the final rule after comments.

I don't practice law, so take anything legal here to your customs broker or trade counsel. China Agent does not file entries with CBP. Your broker files the entry, and the importer of record answers for it. My team prepares the China-side facts before that filing.

If you want the actual factory that makes your goods named in writing before the order, that is the work I do, mostly face to face.

## Where to read it

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "Low-Value Shipments," notice of proposed rulemaking, 91 FR 64532 (October 8, 2026). Document number 2026-20650. Docket USCBP-2026-0298. RIN 1685-AA38. Pages 64532 to 64563. Comments on or before December 7, 2026.

[https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/08/2026-20650/low-value-shipments](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/08/2026-20650/low-value-shipments)

Proposed sections discussed: 19 CFR 113.62(n)(6), 128.24(f), 143.22, 143.26(a) and (b), 143.29, 145.6, and 145.15. Current rules referred to: 19 CFR 113.40, 113.62 and 141.5, and 19 U.S.C. 1641.

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