Do I need to be in a regulated industry to claim drawback?

The law sets no industry test. Your records decide a claim:

• duty paid on the imports;
• the goods, or products made from them, exported or destroyed within five years of import;
• and the evidence that ties each one back to its import line. See How do I know if my company is eligible for duty drawback?

Most companies that trade both ways, and most that claim, are distributors, manufacturers and retailers:

• Who imports and exports. In 2024, 87,016 U.S. companies did both, and they brought in 82.7% of all U.S. imports.

  Wholesalers were 42.5% of them by count; manufacturers held 44.4% of their import value.

• Who claims. In CBP's random sample of 375 drawback claimants from 2007 to 2016, wholesalers made up 41.3%, manufacturers 29.3% and retailers 8.8%.

  By our grouping, apparel, footwear and textile businesses were the largest group, at 18.7%, and no aerospace or defense manufacturer appeared.

Some industries carry extra rules for their records, such as export controls or defense contracts.

Those rules shape what you upload and which processing mode fits; see Regulated trade and your data. Your entries decide.