Customs clearance at Jacksonville

Jacksonville to San Juan is domestic, and that surprises people

Puerto Rico is inside the customs territory of the United States. A container moving from Jacksonville to San Juan is therefore domestic freight: no CBP entry, no import duty, no broker required for customs, because there is no customs event to broker.

What that shipment does have is a Puerto Rico obligation. The goods must be declared to Hacienda and the local excise and use tax settled before release on the island. Importers who were told they needed nothing meet that requirement at the pier, which is the worst possible moment to learn about it.

We work both ends of that lane, which is an unusual thing for a broker to be able to say, and it is only true because our main office is in Cataño, Puerto Rico.

Foreign cargo arriving at Jacksonville is a different matter entirely

The domestic rule applies to the Puerto Rico lane, not to the port. A container arriving at 1803 from a foreign country is an ordinary import: it needs an entry, a bond, an ISF filed 24 hours before loading at origin, and duty at your HTS rate.

The mistake to avoid is reading about the Puerto Rico trade, concluding that Jacksonville is somehow a domestic port, and skipping the filing on a foreign shipment.

Vehicles, and why they get their own conversation

A significant share of what moves on the Jacksonville lanes is vehicles, and vehicles carry requirements that ordinary cargo does not: EPA and DOT declarations on imports, title documentation, and on the Puerto Rico lane a local tax treatment of its own.

If you are shipping a vehicle, tell us before you book rather than after. The paperwork that governs a car is decided long before it reaches a terminal.