October 2022 — Question 69
A duly licensed customs broker was served and named in a Customs summons signed by the Director of the Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Center. The summons requires the broker to provide CBP with the entry files for ten entries prepared on behalf of Company Z within the last three years. The broker terminated Company Z as a client one year ago. Company Z has not provided the broker with any specific written instructions regarding responding to a summons within its now revoked power of attorney document. How must the broker respond to the Customs summons?
- AReturn the summons back to CBP because it must be signed by an auditor or special agent, not a Center Director, to be legally effective.
- BNo response to the summons is required because Company Z is a former client.
- CNo response to the summons is required because the record retention period for Company Z’s entry files expired upon the termination of the broker-client relationship.
- DForward the summons to Company Z and notify the Center Director that it has been forwarded to the party obligated to respond to the summons.
- ERespond to the summons by providing CBP with the entry files requested because the broker is legally obligated to make such records available for examination by CBP.✓ CBP's answer
Why this answer
A broker's entry files are records covered by Part 163, and the definitions in 163.1 make the broker itself a recordkeeper for entries it filed. Section 111.23 requires those records to be kept for five years after entry, and 111.21 together with 163.6(b) obligates the broker to produce them when CBP lawfully demands, so the summons must be answered by producing the ten entry files. Terminating Company Z changes nothing, because retention runs from the entry rather than the client relationship, which defeats options B and C; a summons need not be signed by an auditor or special agent, and forwarding it to the former client does not discharge the broker's own duty. Watch for: Assuming the broker's record obligations end when the client relationship does.
Original CBLE Simulator explanation — the question and key above are CBP's; this analysis is ours. Verify against the current edition before relying on it in practice.
CBP's cited authority
Answer and citations as published in CBP's official answer key for the October 2022 examination.
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