US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have announced that it will reject any U.S. imports that include vague descriptions from 12 November, 2024. If the carrier determines that your package is deemed to have a vague cargo description, they might decline to pick up the shipment, or could hold the shipment at origin until you submit more complete data.
🚨 WARNING: Shipments that are deemed to have vague descriptions are rejected by CBP. When this happens, your shipment is either delayed, failed, returned to you, or you could even be blocked by US customs, and banned from shipping to the US in the future.
If you are shipping to the United States of America, you must provide precise product descriptions when you create your shipments, to make sure that you're complying with CBP regulations. Any shipments that are deemed to have vague descriptions are rejected by CBP, and you could be blocked from shipping to the US in the future.
Example product descriptions
The Shippit team have confirmed that the descriptions most likely to be cleared easily through US customs are descriptions that are concise, but with more detail. Here are some examples of good product descriptions:
Unacceptable | Acceptable |
Accessories | Hair elastics, sunglasses, socks |
Clothing | Women's dresses made of 60% cotton 40% polyester |
Electronic goods | Electronic wrist-worn device with integrated heart rate monitor, accelerometer, and GPS. Contains lithium-ion battery. Plastic and metal construction. |
FlowStride Volt | Men's sports shoes |
Nuts | Hexagonal aluminium bicycle nuts |
Samples | Plastic bottle product samples |
Shorts | Men's 50% cotton 50% rayon shorts |
Toys | Children's toys made of plastic |
T-shirts | Women's 100% cotton t-shirt |
For more information about writing good product descriptions, see the Write effective product descriptions article.
For a comprehensive set of examples from the CBP, see the CBP website.
Get help on US shipping
If you need assistance with these changes, contact your Shippit business partner, or reach out to Shippit support.
For more information about US Customs and Border Protection, see the CBP website.