Importers tend to think of customs clearance as one gate: CBP either releases the container or it doesn’t. In practice, a long list of partner government agencies (PGAs) have their own authority over specific commodities, and any one of them can hold your shipment for reasons that have nothing to do with duty or classification.

These holds behave differently from a CBP exam. They take longer, the resolution path runs through a different office, and the demurrage keeps running the whole time. Here’s a practical orientation for importers moving goods through PortMiami and Port Everglades.

Who can hold your container

FDA

Food, beverages, dietary supplements, cosmetics, drugs, medical devices, radiation-emitting electronics, and food-contact articles. FDA reviews entries submitted through ACE and may issue a “May Proceed,” request more information, or detain the shipment for sampling and examination. Detentions frequently involve label review, registration issues (facility registration and prior notice for food), or a match against an import alert.

USDA APHIS

Plants, plant products, seeds, live animals, animal products, and wood packaging. APHIS is the agency behind ISPM 15 wood packaging enforcement, and its holds can result in treatment, re-export or destruction rather than simple release.

USDA FSIS

Meat, poultry and egg products, which have their own inspection and reinspection regime at designated facilities.

Fish and Wildlife Service

Wildlife products, and a wider range of goods than people expect — leather, certain woods, shell, feathers, and anything with a CITES-listed species in it. FWS requires its own declaration and, in many cases, clearance at a designated port.

Others

EPA (vehicles, engines, pesticides, refrigerants), DOT and NHTSA (vehicles and equipment), CPSC (consumer products, children’s items), TTB (alcohol), ATF, FCC (radio-frequency devices), and more depending on commodity.

Why PGA holds are more expensive than CBP exams

A standard CBP VACIS or tailgate exam is usually measured in days. A PGA hold can run considerably longer for structural reasons:

• Sampling and lab time. FDA detentions involving analysis are limited by laboratory throughput, not by anyone’s urgency.
• Documentation cycles. The agency requests information, you respond, they review. Each round trip takes days.
• Separate systems and contacts. Your broker is dealing with a different office, sometimes a different physical location, with its own procedures.
• Cargo may have to move to a specific facility for examination or reconditioning — an extra drayage leg and an extra set of appointments.

And through all of it, terminal storage accrues. This is the part importers underestimate. A three-week FDA detention on a container sitting at the terminal produces a demurrage bill that can rival the value of the goods. Our demurrage explainer covers how the escalating rate structure works.

The single most useful mitigation: get the box off the terminal

Whether you can do this depends on the hold and the agency, and it’s your customs broker’s call — but where the cargo is permitted to move to a bonded facility, a container freight station or a centralized examination station while the matter is resolved, it almost always should.

The reason is arithmetic. Marine terminal storage is priced to clear the terminal, not to store freight, and it escalates by day tier. Storage at an off-dock yard or bonded facility is a fraction of that and doesn’t escalate the same way. On a hold measured in weeks, the difference is often thousands of dollars.

Moving cargo that hasn’t cleared requires a carrier operating under a customs bond. Go Drayage is licensed by U.S. Customs under bond #LBR8 — see our bonded drayage guide for what that permits. A foreign-trade zone is another option for longer holds on goods that may ultimately be re-exported.

Preventing the hold in the first place

1. Know which agencies touch your commodity before the first shipment, not after. Your customs broker should map this at onboarding.
2. Get registrations and filings in order. FDA facility registration, prior notice for food, FWS declarations, EPA forms — these are administrative and entirely preventable as a cause of delay.
3. Review labels against the destination requirement, not the origin one. Label non-compliance is one of the most common FDA detention causes and one of the easiest to fix upstream.
4. Check import alerts for your commodity and origin country. If your product category is under an alert, plan for detention as the normal case and build the timeline around it.
5. File early. Entries filed before arrival give the agencies review time while the vessel is still at sea, rather than while the storage clock runs.
6. Keep supplier documentation ready. Certificates of analysis, specification sheets, ingredient breakdowns. The faster you can answer an information request, the shorter the hold.

Agency requirements and procedures change. Work with a licensed customs broker on anything specific — nothing here is customs or legal advice.

What to do the day a hold appears

• Confirm with your broker which agency issued it, what type of hold it is, and what’s being requested.
• Calculate your terminal free time and last free day immediately.
• Ask whether the cargo can be moved to a bonded facility, and if so, arrange it now rather than after a week of storage.
• Respond to information requests the same day where you can. Every round trip is days.
• Document everything, because agency-hold days are among the more successful grounds for requesting mitigation on the resulting demurrage invoice.

If you have a held container in South Florida and want it moved the moment it’s releasable, contact our team — that’s the part we can help with.

Frequently asked questions

How long does an FDA hold on an import take?

It varies widely by hold type. Documentation requests can resolve in days if you respond quickly; detentions involving sampling and laboratory analysis often run weeks. The timeline is driven by agency and lab throughput and by how fast you supply requested information, so prompt, complete responses are the main lever you control.

Does demurrage keep accruing during a government agency hold?

Yes. Terminal storage generally continues to accrue regardless of the reason the container can’t be picked up. Days lost to a documented agency hold are a common basis for requesting mitigation on the demurrage invoice, but the charges accrue first and get argued afterward.

Can I move a container off the terminal while it’s under a PGA hold?

Sometimes. It depends on the agency, the hold type and whether the cargo may move in-bond to a bonded facility or examination station. Your customs broker determines whether it’s permitted; if it is, moving it usually costs far less than leaving it at the terminal, and requires a carrier operating under a customs bond.