| >They do actually inspect paperwork and sometimes contents. I'm well aware, this has been my livelihood for 13 years. That doesn't change the fact that Customs inspects a fraction of shipments and that for a considerable chunk of shipments a human being is never even involved on Customs end, just a computer. > They also have mobile x Ray trucks that scan full semi trailers. Mobile x-ray doesn't magically reveal the manufacturer of a given product though, or tap into the akashic record and verify the given country of origin, it goes "yup, there doesn't appear to be missiles, people or hidden compartments in that container". >And if they find out you've lied on the paperwork, you've earned yourself a shit list that's going to extend to any travel you do to/from the U.S. for life, on top of penalties and possibly arrest warrants. Do you really think random people in China are concerned about this? Also the paperwork used for Customs clearance, the vast majority of the time, is supplied by the shipper and the importer of record is only contacted if something is missing or clarification is needed by the broker. Have you ever ordered something form eBay or AliExpress that shipped from China? The Customs declarations NEVER have accurate information on them, they consistently flat out lie about the contents, value, will often indicate gift or not sold, they'll even lie about the country of origin frequently. While these items are often usually a few bucks and are often sectionable anyway, you can bet this happens are formal shipments too without carriers and/or brokers knowing and Customs probably only catches this a small fraction of the time. Until we get AGI and much better imaging equipment OR Customs increases the number of people doing inspection at least one order of magnitude, this will remain true. The volume is simply too high to catch even half of the funny business/lies/contraband. This is also one of the countless reasons I lose sleep at night, we are far far far far far too dependent on be able to order this piece from that country, that piece from this country, those widgets from 2 other countries, and having everything show up at our home/place of business 1-3 days later to replace something that broke. All it takes is a natural disaster, a war, a trade war, and BAM. This trade war with China for example had companies like Regal Beloit scrambling to move their manufacturing to Mexico, then it was announced we'd be starting a trade war with Mexico and these companies began to panic even more, fortunately that one seems to have been resolved. |