Ocean freight clearance

An ocean container runs against two clocks. The first starts twenty-four hours before the box is loaded overseas and belongs to CBP. The second starts when the crane sets the box on the dock and belongs to the terminal and the steamship line. Everything we do on an ocean file aims at one thing: the entry is on record before the second clock starts charging.

Before the vessel sails

The Importer Security Filing is due no later than twenty-four hours before the container is loaded at the foreign port. Ten elements come from you, two from the carrier. A filing that is late, short or wrong exposes the importer to liquidated damages of $5,000 per violation, and it draws a hold that will not lift until the record is corrected. We file as soon as the invoice, packing list and booking exist rather than waiting for a perfect document set, then amend if the manufacturer or the stuffing location changes before sailing. The full mechanics are on the ISF page.

The entry goes in before the box lands

CBP accepts entry documentation ahead of arrival, and we use that window rather than treating it as optional. Cargo release data goes in against the master and house bills so the release is already sitting on the manifest when the vessel is worked, not queued behind it. The entry summary and the duty follow. Importers on a periodic monthly statement pay in the month after release rather than entry by entry, which is worth real working capital on a programme moving several containers a week.

We work from Linden, New Jersey, a short drive from the Elizabeth and Port Newark terminals, but the entry is filed wherever your vessel actually calls: Newark, Savannah, Houston, Long Beach, Norfolk, Charleston or anywhere else on the coast.

What the tariff looks like on an ocean entry in 2026

The ordinary HTS rate is usually the smallest number on the calculation now. Four other layers decide what a container owes.

• Section 232. Steel and aluminium, plus a derivative list that keeps widening, carry metal-content duty. The declaration turns on where the steel was melted and poured and where the aluminium was smelted and cast, not on where the finished article was assembled. On a derivative line the metal content is reported and dutied separately from the rest of the article, so a bill of material giving weight and value by component is what keeps the metal rate off the whole invoice.
• Section 301. China-origin goods carry list duty on top of the ordinary rate, and which list applies is decided by the classification, not by the wording on the invoice. Where the lists stand now.
• IEEPA actions. Tariffs issued under emergency authority have moved fast and have been litigated hard. We check the rate in force on the date of entry rather than the rate that applied when you booked.
• AD/CVD. An order covers a scope description, not a brand or a supplier. Goods near the edge of one can draw cash deposits in the tens or hundreds of percent, and liquidation can stay suspended for years while Commerce runs an administrative review. How that works.

The duty on a container booked in March is not always the duty owed when it lands in May. We would rather tell you that at the quotation than at the pier.

Where ocean entries actually come apart

• The bill is not on file. The carrier manifest and our filing have to agree on the bill number, the piece count and the weight. Until they do, the release does not transmit. Much of what importers experience as a customs delay is this, and it is fixed by working the steamship line and the deconsolidator, not CBP.
• The order got split. Part of the purchase order rolls to the next vessel. The entry has to cover what actually arrived, and the invoice has to be cut to match.
• A partner-agency hold sits open while free time burns. FDA, APHIS and Lacey holds do not pause demurrage, and neither does a weekend.
• The invoice cannot be classified. Machine parts, gift items and samples are not descriptions. We will come back with questions, and those questions are far cheaper before arrival than after.
• An exam. Nothing prevents CBP from routing a container to a centralised examination station. A complete, internally consistent entry is what keeps a shipment out of the discretionary pile, and when an exam does land we chase the station rather than waiting on a notice.

On the money side: since the Federal Maritime Commission tightened its billing rules, a demurrage or detention invoice has to carry specified information and reach the billed party inside a fixed window, and one that fails those requirements can be challenged. We keep the release and availability timeline so you have something to challenge it with. Demurrage and detention, in detail.

What we need from you

• Commercial invoice with unit price, quantity, currency, Incoterm and country of origin on every line.
• Packing list whose marks, piece count and weight match the bill of lading.
• Master bill, house bill and the arrival notice.
• Mill certificates for anything containing steel or aluminium, showing melt and pour or smelt and cast country.
• A continuous bond, or say the word and we will place one. See customs bonds.
• Any free trade agreement claim you intend to make, and the partner-agency data for regulated goods: FDA registration and product codes, APHIS permits, Lacey declarations.