Foreign Exporter Documentation: What's Coming by September 1

Section 3(b) of Executive Order 14411 gives the Department of Homeland Security 90 days from the order's June 3, 2026 signing to "take steps to establish a requirement mandating the submission of any documentation or information that the foreign exporter was required to submit to the foreign customs administration prior to exporting to the United States." Ninety days from June 3 is September 1, 2026, next week as of this writing.

What the order actually requires

Strip away the legal phrasing and the idea is simple: right now, what you declare to CBP at the U.S. border and what your supplier declared to their own country's customs authority before the goods ever left, live in two separate systems that nobody automatically reconciles. Section 3(b) is CBP telling DHS to close that gap by requiring the foreign exporter's own export documentation to be available on the U.S. side too.

The order doesn't name the pedimento specifically, it applies to whatever documentation any foreign exporter submits to their own country's customs administration, but for Mexico-origin freight it's the clearest available example: the pedimento is Mexico's outbound export declaration, and it carries the same kind of value, quantity, and description data your U.S. entry does. Right now, nothing requires those two documents to match, or even requires anyone to compare them. Section 3(b) points directly at that gap.

Why the mismatch matters

Two documents describing the same shipment, filed with two different governments, created by two different parties, rarely disagree by accident when someone benefits from the difference. A value, quantity, or description that shifts between what left Mexico and what arrived in the U.S. is exactly the kind of discrepancy this requirement is aimed at catching.

What importers can do now

• Start an internal audit comparing your declared U.S. entry data against what your exporter actually declared on export, starting with value, quantity, and description.
• If you're sourcing from Mexico, ask your supplier or customs broker on that side for a copy of the pedimento for a recent shipment and compare it directly.
• If you find a discrepancy, resolve it now and fix whatever process produced it, before there's a published rule requiring you to.
• If you source from elsewhere, ask the same question about whatever export documentation your supplier files with their own customs authority.