The United states imports roughly $ 2 trillion in goods through its borders. Most of the documentation associated with this trade is filed manually. The US Customs department offers brokers to file this information electronically however a stringent and complicated certification process means only about 18 companies in all of the US are certified for this submission. To make matters worse, during the last 10 years, US import regulations have changed a great deal. There have been many factors which contributed to the increased complexity of the procedures that importers and brokers have to undergo, which include.