What to do when cargo is held at customs

Cargo held at customs costs money from the first day: storage and container demurrage are billed per day and rise in tiers, so three weeks stopped can cost more than the freight itself. The first thing to do is not to call anyone, but to identify which of the four possible causes is yours, because what can be done changes completely from one to another.

The four causes, and why you have to tell them apart before acting

A hold means very different things depending on the reason, and acting without knowing which one is yours is the fastest way to spend money down the wrong road.

Documentary cause. A document is missing or there is an inconsistency between them. It is the most frequent cause and the cheapest to resolve, because normally it is enough to supply the missing paper or correct the discrepancy.

Regulatory cause. The product needs a prior authorisation that does not exist: an NOM in Mexico, an ANATEL homologation or an Inmetro certification in Brazil, a health permit, or a sector licence. It is the most expensive cause, because testing is done on the finished product and cannot be improvised with the cargo at the port.

Valuation cause. Customs does not accept the declared value and challenges it. It happens above all when the declared value is well below the reference prices for that merchandise, or when the invoice and the pedimento do not tell the same story.

Physical inspection cause. The cargo is selected for examination. It may be routine or may be driven by any of the three causes above. On its own it usually resolves itself, but it consumes days.

The clock is the enemy

Here is what almost nobody explains clearly before it happens: the container starts generating charges the moment it is unloaded from the vessel, not when you find out there is a problem.

These are three different charges that accumulate at the same time:

• Storage, charged by the port or the terminal for occupying its surface area.
• Demurrage, charged by the shipping line for the container that is not returned.
• Detention, charged by the shipping line when the container leaves the port and does not come back on time.

Each one works with free days and then tiers: the first days are usually free or cheap and the rate rises in steps. The practical effect is that the cost does not grow in a straight line, but jumps from the fifth or seventh day onwards.

A container stopped for three weeks can cost more in storage than it cost to cross from China. It is the strongest argument there is for sorting out the documentation before shipping, not after.

What can be done, in order of cost

First, supply the missing document. If the cause is documentary, this resolves it and it is usually a matter of hours. Always start here: it is the cheapest and the most frequent.

Second, correct the classification or the value with your customs broker. If customs challenges the tariff heading or the value, your broker can file the correction with the supporting documentation. In Mexico this is done by the agente aduanal; in Argentina and Brazil, by the licensed despachante.

Third, request a ruling or a resolution. When there is a difference of interpretation on classification, there is a route for asking for a formal ruling. It is slower and only makes sense if the amount at stake justifies it.

Fourth, and this has to be said: abandon, re-export or destroy. In some cases it is the cheapest option, above all for low-value goods that need a certification that cannot be obtained with the cargo already at the port. Re-exporting costs another freight bill. Destroying costs a fee. Abandoning costs you the goods. An agent who hides this exit from you rather than admit the problem is making you lose money.

Who can act legally, in the three markets

In all three countries, clearance is carried out only by a licensed professional, and only that person can file documents with the authority. This means your speed depends on theirs, and that changing broker in the middle of a hold almost never speeds things up: the file has to be handed over and the new one has to understand it.

What you get back and what you do not

It is worth saying plainly.

You get back, almost always, a documentary hold resolved in time: the cargo is released, and the cost is the days of storage.

You sometimes get back a valuation discrepancy, if your broker can support the value with documentation — contract, bank transfer, manufacturer’s invoice — showing that the declared price is real.

You do not get back lost profit. If your product sold in peak season and the cargo arrives two months late, that sale does not come back. And this is the largest cost of all, well above storage.

You do not get back the cost of a cargo destroyed for lack of certification, unless you have insurance that specifically covers that cause, which is uncommon.

How to prevent it, which is the real content

Almost all holds are created before shipping. The four measures that prevent them:

Check the tariff classification before producing. The duty, the prior authorisations and the labelling requirements all depend on it. It is the data point everything else hangs from.

Obtain the certification before shipment. Testing is done on the finished product, so the certificate requires manufactured product. Planning it from the design stage is the difference between launching on time and losing the season.

Keep the invoice and the packing list consistent with each other and with what is inside the box. A difference between what is declared and what turns up in the examination turns a routine inspection into an investigation.

Do not under-declare the value. It is the most frequent temptation and the most expensive mistake. Under-declaring is an offence that the importer assumes, not the supplier: the penalty falls on whoever signs the declaration. It also invalidates any insurance claim and leaves you without arguments if you later need to dispute a valuation.

What we do and what we do not

We are not customs brokers in Mexico, Argentina or Brazil, and we cannot clear the cargo ourselves. What we do is make sure everything leaving China leaves correct: we check the classification before buying, we point out which certifications apply in your market, and we review that the export documentation is consistent with what is inside the box.

In the rare cases where something gets stuck, the advantage is not that we can lift the hold, but that the problem is on the Chinese side and not yours: claiming against the seller in Mandarin, with the goods still in China and before the balance has been paid, is the only moment when real leverage over a supplier exists.