When used in this part, the following terms have the meanings indicated:

Appropriate Executive Director, Office of Trade. “Appropriate Executive Director, Office of Trade” means the Executive Director responsible for broker management.

Broker. “Broker” means a customs broker.

Broker's office of record. “Broker's office of record” means the office designated by a customs broker as the broker's primary location that oversees the administration of the provisions of this part regarding all activities conducted under a national permit.

Continuing broker education requirement. “Continuing broker education requirement” means an individual broker's obligation to complete a certain number of continuing education credits of qualifying continuing broker education, as set forth in subpart F of this part, in order to maintain sufficient knowledge of customs and related laws, regulations, and procedures, bookkeeping, accounting, and all other appropriate matters necessary to render valuable service to importers and drawback claimants.

Continuing education credit. “Continuing education credit” means the unit of measurement used for meeting the continuing broker education requirement. The smallest recognized unit is half of one continuing education credit, which requires 30 minutes of continuous participation in qualifying continuing broker education, as defined in § 111.103(a). For qualifying continuing broker education lasting more than 30 minutes, half of one continuing education credit may be claimed for every full 30 minutes of continuous participation thereafter. For example, for qualifying continuing broker education lasting more than 60 minutes but less than 90 minutes, only one continuing education credit may be claimed. In contrast, for qualifying continuing broker education lasting 90 minutes, 1.5 continuing broker education credits may be claimed.

Corporate compliance activity. “Corporate compliance activity” means activity performed by a business entity to ensure that documents for a related business entity or entities are prepared and filed with CBP using “reasonable care”, but such activity does not extend to the actual preparation or filing of the documents or their electronic equivalents. For purposes of this definition, a “business entity” is an entity that is registered or otherwise on record with an appropriate governmental authority for business licensing, taxation, or other legal purposes, and the term “related business entity or entities” encompasses a business entity that has more than a 50 percent ownership interest in another business entity, a business entity in which another business entity has more than a 50 percent ownership interest, and two or more business entities in which the same business entity has more than a 50 percent ownership interest.

Customs broker. “Customs broker” means a person who is licensed under this part to transact customs business on behalf of others.

Customs business. “Customs business” means those activities involving transactions with CBP concerning the entry and admissibility of merchandise, its classification and valuation, the payment of duties, taxes, or other charges assessed or collected by CBP on merchandise by reason of its importation, and the refund, rebate, or drawback of those duties, taxes, or other charges. “Customs business” also includes the preparation, and activities relating to the preparation, of documents in any format and the electronic transmission of documents and parts of documents intended to be filed with CBP in furtherance of any other customs business activity, whether or not signed or filed by the preparer. However, “customs business” does not include the mere electronic transmission of data received for transmission to CBP and does not include a corporate compliance activity.

Department of Homeland Security or any representative of the Department of Homeland Security. “Department of Homeland Security or any representative of the Department of Homeland Security” means any office, officer, or employee of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, wherever located.

Employee. “Employee” means a person who meets the common law definition of employee and is in the service of a customs broker.

Executive Assistant Commissioner. “Executive Assistant Commissioner” means the Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Trade at the Headquarters of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Freight forwarder. “Freight forwarder” means a person engaged in the business of dispatching shipments in foreign commerce between the United States, its territories or possessions, and foreign countries, and handling the formalities incident to such shipments, on behalf of other persons.

Officer. “Officer”, when used in the context of an association or corporation, means a person who has been elected, appointed, or designated as an officer of an association or corporation in accordance with statute and the articles of incorporation, articles of agreement, charter, or bylaws of the association or corporation.

Permit. “Permit” means a permit issued to a broker under § 111.19.

Person. “Person” includes individuals, partnerships, associations, and corporations.

Processing Center. “Processing Center” means the broker management operations of a Center of Excellence and Expertise (Center) that process applications for a broker's license under § 111.12(a), applications for a national permit under § 111.19(b) for an individual, partnership, association, or corporation, as well as submissions required in this part for an already-licensed broker.

Qualifying continuing broker education. “Qualifying continuing broker education” means any training or educational activity that is eligible or, if required, has been approved for continuing education credit, in accordance with § 111.103.

Records. “Records” means documents, data and information referred to in, and required to be made or maintained under, this part and any other records, as defined in § 163.1(a) of this chapter, that are required to be maintained by a broker under part 163 of this chapter.

Responsible supervision and control. “Responsible supervision and control” means that degree of supervision and control necessary to ensure the proper transaction of the customs business of a broker, including actions necessary to ensure that an employee of a broker provides substantially the same quality of service in handling customs transactions that the broker is required to provide. See § 111.28 for a list of factors which CBP may consider when evaluating responsible supervision and control.

Triennial period. “Triennial period” means a period of three years commencing on February 1, 1985, or on February 1 in any third year thereafter.

(a) License—(1) General. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, a person must obtain the license provided for in this part in order to transact customs business as a broker.

(2) Transactions for which license is not required—(i) For one's own account. An importer or exporter transacting customs business solely on his own account and in no sense on behalf of another is not required to be licensed, nor are his authorized regular employees or officers who act only for him in the transaction of such business.

(ii) As employee of broker—(A) General. An employee of a broker, acting solely for his employer, is not required to be licensed where:

(1) Authorized to sign documents. The broker has authorized the employee to sign documents pertaining to customs business on his behalf, and has executed a power of attorney for that purpose. The broker is not required to file the power of attorney with CBP, but must provide proof of its existence to CBP upon request; or

(2) Authorized to transact other business. The broker has filed with the processing Center a statement identifying the employee as authorized to transact customs business on his behalf.

(B) Broker supervision; withdrawal of authority. Where an employee has been given authority under paragraph (a)(2)(ii) of this section, the broker must exercise sufficient supervision of the employee to ensure proper conduct on the part of the employee in the transaction of customs business, and the broker will be held strictly responsible for the acts or omissions of the employee within the scope of his employment and for any other acts or omissions of the employee which, through the exercise of reasonable care and diligence, the broker should have foreseen. The broker must promptly notify the processing Center if authority granted to an employee under paragraph (a)(2)(ii) of this section is withdrawn. The withdrawal of authority will be effective upon receipt by the processing Center.

(iii) Marine transactions. A person transacting business in connection with entry or clearance of vessels or other regulation of vessels under the navigation laws is not required to be licensed as a broker.

(iv) Transportation in bond. Any carrier bringing merchandise to the port of arrival or any bonded carrier transporting merchandise for another may make entry for that merchandise for transportation in bond without being a broker.

(v) Noncommercial shipments. An individual entering noncommercial merchandise for another party is not required to be a broker, provided that the requirements of § 141.33 of this chapter are met.

(vi) Foreign trade zone activities. A foreign trade zone operator or user need not be licensed as a broker in order to engage in activities within a zone that do not involve the transfer of merchandise to the customs territory of the United States.

(b) National permit. A national permit issued to a broker under § 111.19 will constitute sufficient permit authority for the broker to conduct customs business within the customs territory of the United States as defined in § 101.1 of this chapter.

(a) Location. Customs business must be conducted within the customs territory of the United States as defined in § 101.1 of this chapter.

(b) Point of contact. A licensed customs broker, or partnership, association, or corporation, conducting customs business under a national permit must designate a knowledgeable point of contact to be available to CBP during and outside of normal operating hours to respond to customs business issues. The licensed customs broker, or partnership, association, or corporation, must maintain accurate and current point of contact information in a CBP-authorized electronic data interchange (EDI) system. If a CBP-authorized EDI system is not available, then the information must be provided in writing to the processing Center.

Any person who intentionally transacts customs business, other than as provided in § 111.2(a)(2), without holding a valid broker's license, will be liable for a monetary penalty for each such transaction as well as for each violation of any other provision of 19 U.S.C. 1641. The penalty will be assessed in accordance with subpart E of this part.

(a) Agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. A broker who represents a client in the importation or exportation of merchandise may represent the client before the Department of Homeland Security or any representative of the Department of Homeland Security on any matter concerning that merchandise.

(b) Agencies not within the Department of Homeland Security. In order to represent a client before any agency not within the Department of Homeland Security, a broker must comply with any regulations of that agency governing the appearance of representatives before it.