Trade Agreement Investigations
Overview
The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Commercial Fraud Unit oversees the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) program. This program guides HSI’s investigations into businesses and individuals who break the rules of FTAs and trade preference programs.
Goals
A major goal of FTAs is to promote fair competition, which increases trading opportunities and lowers barriers for trading goods and services between the United States and countries that have signed these agreements. Products entering the U.S. under an FTA benefit from lower duty rates.
Focus
One of the main issues HSI focuses on is when companies conspire to avoid FTA origin rules. Often, goods are shipped through an FTA country to hide their actual origin to gain the duty preferences provided by the FTA. Violations also occur when importers falsely claim that a product made from non-qualifying materials is manufactured in an FTA country using qualifying materials.
Collaboration
HSI conducts trade fraud investigations to uncover fraud and ensure compliance with FTAs, often recovering significant amounts of revenue. Working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and both domestic and international partners, HSI shares intelligence and jointly investigates these violations. For instance, investigations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) are boosted by a partnership with the Government of Mexico’s Tax Administration Service. HSI and CBP also create and share training materials to keep up with international trade agreement requirements.
Participants
The U.S. has 14 FTAs involving 20 countries. While many of these agreements are bilateral, involving two countries, others like the USMCA and the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement are multilateral. The U.S. has FTAs with countries including Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, and many others in various parts of the world.
FTA Partner Countries