The ISF is one of the results of a piece of legislation called the SECURITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR EVERY PORT ACT OF 2006 (SAFE Port Act for short). Title 2 of the Act, "SECURITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SUPPLY CHAIN", particularly 203(a)(1), requires that customs "identify and seek the submission of data related to the movement of a shipment of cargo through the international supply chain" which resulted in an "interim final" rule published in the Federal Register on November 25, 2008 (73 FR 71730).
This rule spelled out 10 pieces of data an importer needs to submit, plus reiterated 2 pieces of data that ocean carriers were already required to submit for each shipment, leading to the "10+2" moniker for the ISF. Additionally, it spelled out the 24 hours prior to loading deadline for ISF submission. If you are using a customs broker they will have their own deadlines for turning over the information to give them time to complete the filing.
The 10 pieces of data needed for the ISF are:
- Seller
- Buyer
- Importer of record
- Consignee
- Manufacturer (or supplier)
- Ship to party
- Country of origin
- Commodity HTSUS number
- Container stuffing location
- Consolidator (stuffer)
All of these are relatively straightforward with the exception of the HTS numbers which I'll cover another time. It's possible for multiple items to be the same entity, though it varies with each individual situation. One of the most common cases where two data points could be the same is when purchasing from directly a factory - the seller and manufacturer/supplier are likely to be the same in that instance.
The rule requiring the ISF went into effect on January 29, 2009. For the first year "flexible enforcement" was in place and there were no penalties for late filing or mistakes provided a good faith effort and progress were being made toward compliance. In late January 2010 full enforcement was scheduled to go into effect with fines of $5,000 for each error as well as late or non-filing.
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