On June 3, 2026 the White House signed Executive Order 14411, titled Strengthening Customs Enforcement. Most of the text is addressed to Customs and Border Protection, not to brands. But one part of it reaches straight into any company outside the United States that ships goods in under its own name. The order gives the Department of Homeland Security 180 days to rewrite who may act as importer of record and on what terms. That clock runs out on November 30, 2026.

If your brand is the party named on the customs entry for your US shipments, you are the one being reclassified. This piece is about what the order says, what it changes for the usual ways into the US market, and what to sort out before the end of November.

What a foreign importer of record now means

The order defines two kinds of importer. A US IOR is, for a company, one that is organized under US law, is located in the United States, and at all times has controlling beneficial owners who are US citizens or lawful permanent residents. Everything else is a foreign IOR.

"Located in the United States" has its own three part test: principal place of business in the country, a physical presence where significant business activity takes place, and sufficient tangible assets in the country.

Read that definition twice, because it closes a door that looks open. A US LLC formed from abroad and owned by a non US person does not become a US IOR. The ownership test fails. So "form a Delaware company and import through it" does not change your classification under this order. It changes your paperwork, not your status.

What changes for a foreign importer of record

The order directs CBP to do the following. The regulations that carry it out were still being written when we published this, so the exact mechanics may differ. The direction is not in doubt.

  • No informal entries. A foreign IOR is to be barred from filing informal entry under 19 U.S.C. 1498, the simplified entry used for lower value shipments. After the de minimis exemption was suspended, informal entry became the next cheapest route for overseas parcels. That route is being closed to foreign importers.
  • Formal entries only through a vetted channel. A foreign IOR must either be validated in CBP's Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) or file through a CTPAT validated and licensed customs broker. The order also directs CBP to stop foreign IORs relying on a continuous bond to meet entry requirements. WilmerHale reads this as close to a prohibition. How CBP writes the rule is still open.
  • Assets or bond, for everyone. Every IOR, US or foreign, must maintain at all times a minimum level of tangible domestic assets, bonding, or both, for formal and informal entries alike. Minimum required bond coverage goes up.
  • New disclosures. CBP will collect anticipated import volumes, year organized, ownership and beneficial ownership, business affiliations, and domestic assets, plus whatever else it decides it needs.
  • Good standing and recurrent vetting. An IOR that is not in good standing with CBP will not be allowed to import. Good standing looks at the compliance history of the IOR and its affiliates, not only the entity on the entry. Vetting becomes ongoing rather than a single check at registration.
  • A penalty floor. Within 90 days of the order, CBP was to set a minimum penalty floor of not less than 50 percent of the assessed penalty, absent exceptional circumstances. A penalty can no longer be negotiated below half of what was assessed, outside those exceptional cases.

Two dates matter. The 90 day items, including the penalty floor, fell due at the start of September 2026. The structural items, meaning the informal entry bar, the CTPAT channel, the asset and bond rule and the disclosures, fall due on November 30, 2026.

What this does to the three usual routes

We laid out the three ways an overseas brand reaches American customers in how overseas brands sell on Amazon USA: build a US operation, hire an agency, or sell to a US distributor. The order lands on each one differently.

Build it yourself

You can still do this. But your US entity, if you own it from abroad, is a foreign IOR under the definition above. That means formal entries through a CTPAT validated broker, a bond sized to the new minimums or tangible US assets, the full disclosure set, and ongoing vetting of you and your affiliates. None of that is impossible. All of it is slower and more expensive than it was in May, and it stacks on top of the entity work we described in whether you need a US company to sell in the US.

Hire an agency

Nothing changes on the import side, and that is the problem. An agency runs your seller account. It does not import your goods. You remain the importer of record, so every item in the list above still applies to you. If your agency has not raised this with you yet, raise it with them.

Sell to a US distributor that buys the goods

This is the route the order does not touch, with one condition. When a US company buys your inventory and takes title before it enters the country, that company imports its own goods in its own name. Your customs role ends where your delivery terms say it ends. Under EXW or FOB origin terms, that is at your door or your port. Under DDP, you are still delivering duty paid, which makes you the importer again and puts you back in scope. The Incoterm decides it, not the nationality of the buyer.

Where Karimex sits, and where it does not

Karimex buys inventory from brands at wholesale, takes title, and imports what it owns. We are the importer of record for our own stock, under our own bond, with our own broker. The entry carries our name because the goods are ours.

We do not act as importer of record for goods we do not own, and we want to say that plainly because the question will come up more often after November. Being someone's importer of record for a fee means carrying the duty, the classification, the valuation and the penalty exposure for goods you did not choose and do not control. That liability sits with the party named on the entry. As far as CBP is concerned, a contract between you and that party does not move it. If a company offers to be your importer for a fee, ask them one question: when CBP disagrees with the classification, who pays.

What we do instead is simpler. You invoice us from your entity at home. From the moment title passes, the import, the bond, the disclosures and the vetting are ours, because the goods are ours. What stays with you and what moves to us is set out on our US market entry page.

What to sort out before November 30

  1. Find out who is named as importer on your recent entries. Ask your forwarder or broker for the entry summaries. If the importer is your home company, or a US company you own from abroad, you are in scope.
  2. Check your entry types. If shipments have been clearing as informal entries, plan for formal entries from here: a licensed broker, a bond, and full documentation per shipment.
  3. Assemble the disclosure pack now. Ownership chart down to beneficial owners, a list of affiliated companies, a volume forecast for the next year, and a statement of any assets you hold in the United States. CBP will ask for all of it.
  4. Check your delivery terms. Every DDP sale into the United States makes you the importer. If you sell DDP to retailers or to consumers, either change the terms or accept that the new rules apply to you.
  5. Pick a route and commit. Either upgrade your own import setup, which means a CTPAT validated broker, a larger bond and the disclosures, or move to terms where a US buyer imports.
  6. Watch the actual regulations. The order sets direction and deadlines. CBP writes the rules, and rules can carry their own effective dates. Do not treat that as a reason to wait. Treat November 30 as the date by which you need a working plan.

Where this leaves you

The de minimis suspension took away the cheap way in. This order takes away the informal way in and puts a price on being a foreign importer. Brands that keep importing under their own name can still do it, with more bond, more paperwork and a vetted broker. Brands that would rather not become a US importer at all have one clean route left: sell the goods to an American company that imports what it owns.

If you want to see what that looks like for your catalog, that is the conversation we usually start with. The mechanics are on how the partnership works.

Frequently asked questions

Does forming a US LLC make me a US importer of record?

Not on its own. The order's definition requires the entity to be organized under US law, located in the United States, and controlled at all times by beneficial owners who are US citizens or lawful permanent residents. A US LLC owned by a non US person fails the ownership test and is a foreign IOR.

Is November 30, 2026 a hard cutoff?

It is the deadline the order gives the Secretary of Homeland Security to put the structural changes in place. The regulations may set their own effective dates, and some items could arrive earlier or later. Treat it as the date by which you need a working plan.

What is an informal entry, and why does losing it matter?

Informal entry is the simplified customs process available for lower value shipments under 19 U.S.C. 1498. It needs less documentation and no formal entry bond on each shipment. Barring foreign importers from it means every one of their shipments becomes a formal entry.

If I sell to Karimex, who is the importer of record?

Karimex is, for the inventory it buys, under EXW or FOB origin terms. We import goods we own and nothing else. We do not act as importer of record for third party inventory, at any fee.

Sources

K
Karimex
Brand authorized distribution partner specializing in Amazon. A subsidiary of Karimer LLC based in Reno, Nevada.