Last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued new penalty mitigation guidelines related to wood packaging material regulations (WPM). CBP says that while they are "not required to grant relief in any specific case, they may reference these guidelines" when appropriate "to determine the mitigation, remission, or cancellation amount."

For those who have assessed WPM violations, CBP has issued a "three strike" policy where after your third violation, you will no longer be provided mitigation opportunities. If you are a first-time offender, "penalties assessed may be mitigated to an amount between 1 to 10% of the value of the assessed penalty depending on the presence of mitigating and aggravating factors." For second offenders, that amount is raised to 10 to 25% of the value of the assessed penalty. Lastly, third time offenders will receive no lower than 25% of the value of the assessed penalty.

For more information, make sure to read the mitigation guidelines here.