What Is a TSCA Form and When Do You Need One?

A TSCA form is the import certification you file with U.S. Customs and Border Protection stating whether the chemicals in your shipment comply with the Toxic Substances Control Act or fall outside its scope. It is not a standalone government form in the traditional sense; it is a signed statement submitted as part of your customs entry, and the Environmental Protection Agency requires it for most chemical substances, mixtures, and certain finished goods entering the United States. Skip it or get it wrong and CBP will detain or refuse the shipment, with civil penalties reaching $49,772 per day of violation.

The Two Certifications

Every TSCA import certification is either positive or negative, and picking the wrong one causes the same problems as not filing at all.

A positive certification reads: “I certify that all chemical substances in this shipment comply with all applicable rules or orders under TSCA and that I am not offering a chemical substance for entry in violation of TSCA or any applicable rule or order thereunder.” Use it when the shipment contains chemicals under TSCA’s jurisdiction, such as industrial chemicals, solvents, adhesives, and coatings. Signing it means you are personally vouching that the chemicals comply with all applicable TSCA rules, including premanufacture notification, significant new use rules, and any restrictions under Sections 5, 6, or 7 of the act.¹

A negative certification reads: “I certify that all chemicals in this shipment are not subject to TSCA.” Use it when the shipment contains products regulated by another federal agency but those products are not clearly identified through that agency’s entry documentation. If your pesticide already has a Notice of Arrival filed with the EPA, or your FDA-regulated product has its applicable FDA entry filing, no TSCA certification is needed at all.¹

When You Need to File

The baseline rule: any chemical substance or mixture entering U.S. customs territory needs a TSCA certification unless a specific exemption applies. That covers chemicals arriving by mail, commercial carrier, or any other method, and it covers both substances already on the TSCA Inventory and new substances that have never been imported before.²

Articles, meaning finished goods whose function depends on their shape or design rather than their chemical composition, generally do not need certification. A plastic chair, a metal tool, and a rubber tire are all articles.

Composite Wood Products Are the Exception

Importers of hardwood plywood, medium-density fiberboard, particleboard, or finished goods containing these materials must file a positive TSCA certification even though the product looks like an article. This requirement comes from TSCA Title VI, which sets formaldehyde emission limits: 0.05 ppm for hardwood plywood, 0.11 ppm for medium-density fiberboard, 0.13 ppm for thin medium-density fiberboard, and 0.09 ppm for particleboard. Only composite wood products certified as compliant by an EPA-recognized third-party certifier may be imported.³

This catches many importers off guard. A company bringing in assembled bookshelves, kitchen cabinets, or laminate flooring may not think of itself as a chemical importer, but the panels inside those products trigger TSCA Title VI. You have to keep bills of lading, invoices, or comparable documents with a written supplier statement confirming Title VI compliance, and those records must be available to the EPA within 30 calendar days of a request.⁴

When No Certification Is Needed

TSCA’s definition of “chemical substance” carves out several product categories that fall under other agencies:

Pesticides regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
Food, food additives, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
Nuclear source material, special nuclear material, and byproduct material under the Atomic Energy Act
Tobacco and tobacco products
Firearms and ammunition as defined in Section 3 of TSCA

If any of these are already tied to another agency’s entry filing, no TSCA certification is required. If they are not clearly identified through another agency’s paperwork, file a negative certification.¹

Certain chemicals cannot be imported at all, or only under narrow conditions. Under TSCA Section 6(h), the EPA has restricted five persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals, including decaBDE, PIP (3:1), 2,4,6-TTBP, hexachlorobutadiene, and pentachlorothiophenol. A positive certification on a shipment that violates one of those rules is itself a false statement.⁵

Who Signs and How It Gets Filed

The certification must come from the importer or the importer’s authorized agent. Federal regulations define “importer” broadly to include the person primarily liable for duties, the consignee, the importer of record, and even a transferee holding rights to bonded warehouse merchandise.⁶ A customs broker acting as the importer’s authorized agent can sign on the importer’s behalf, and facsimile signatures are permitted. The certification must include the certifier’s name, phone number, and email address.⁷

Whoever signs takes on personal legal exposure. If the certification turns out to be false, enforcement actions target the certifier and the importing entity, not the overseas manufacturer or shipper.

Filing happens electronically through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), the single-window platform CBP uses for trade processing.⁸ The data goes in through the Partner Government Agency (PGA) message set within ACE, usually handled by your customs broker. The certification must be filed before the shipment is released from customs; miss that window and your goods sit at the port. In the rare situations where paper filing is still used, the statement must be typed or preprinted on the invoice or otherwise included in the entry documentation and filed with the port director before release.¹

To complete the certification you need the chemical identity of every substance in the shipment, including individual constituents within mixtures, the CAS Registry Number for each substance when available, the importer’s name and address, and the certifier’s contact information.

New Chemicals Require More Than a Certification

If you are importing a chemical substance that is not already listed on the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory, the certification is the last step, not the first. You must submit a Premanufacture Notice (PMN) to the EPA at least 90 calendar days before the import begins. Under TSCA, importing counts as manufacturing, so the PMN requirement applies to importers the same way it applies to domestic manufacturers.⁹

The PMN covers the chemical’s identity, intended uses, estimated production volume, worker exposure, and environmental release data. During the 90-day review the EPA can impose conditions, require testing, or prohibit the chemical entirely. Only after the review period closes without objection can you proceed with the import and file a positive certification.

If you are not sure whether a chemical is already on the Inventory, the EPA’s Substance Registry Services database lets you search by chemical name, CAS Registry Number, or EPA identification number before you commit to an import plan. Narrower exemption pathways exist for low-volume imports (10,000 kg per year or less) and for research and development quantities, each with its own notice and review requirements.¹⁰¹¹

What Happens if You Get It Wrong

CBP will refuse entry to any shipment that lacks a proper TSCA certification, and it will detain a shipment whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe the shipment or its import violates TSCA or any regulation under it.²

Once a shipment is detained, you have 90 days from the date of the detention notice, or 30 days from a demand for redelivery (whichever comes first), to bring the shipment into compliance or export it.¹² A refused shipment not exported within 90 days can be disposed of or stored by order of the Secretary of the Treasury, with all storage, cartage, labor, and disposal charges falling on the importer. Those charges also become a lien against your future customs entries.¹³

Civil penalties for TSCA violations reach $49,772 per day of violation for penalties assessed on or after January 2025, and the figure adjusts periodically for inflation.¹⁴ Each day counts as a separate offense, so a shipment sitting out of compliance for weeks can generate six-figure liability before the underlying problem is fixed. Knowing or willful violations can bring criminal fines and imprisonment, with much steeper exposure when a violation places someone in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.¹⁵

Records You Have to Keep

Filing the certification is only half the compliance picture. You also have to hold onto records that back up whatever you certified. The general retention period for TSCA reporting records is three years from the date of creation, though certain chemical-specific reporting rules extend that to five.¹⁶

For composite wood product imports, retain bills of lading, invoices, or comparable documents including the supplier’s written statement of Title VI compliance for three years from the import date, and be prepared to produce them within 30 calendar days of an EPA request along with records identifying the panel producer and manufacturing date.³

A working compliance file should contain copies of every certification you have submitted, the documentation supporting each positive certification (safety data sheets, supplier declarations, test reports, Inventory verification), and any correspondence with the EPA or CBP about your shipments. When an inspector arrives, that file is the first thing they ask to see.

1
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. TSCA Requirements for Importing Chemicals
2
eCFR. 40 CFR Part 707 – Chemical Imports and Exports
3
eCFR. 40 CFR Part 770 – Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products
4
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Small Entity Compliance for Formaldehyde Standards in Composite Wood Products – Importers, Distributors, and Retailers
5
US EPA. Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic (PBT) Chemicals under TSCA Section 6(h)
6
eCFR. 40 CFR 704.3 – Definitions
7
eCFR. 19 CFR 12.121 – Reporting Requirements
8
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. How to Use the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)
9
eCFR. 40 CFR Part 720 – Premanufacture Notification
10
US EPA. Low Volume Exemption for New Chemical Review under TSCA
11
eCFR. 40 CFR 720.36 – Exemption for Research and Development
12
eCFR. 19 CFR 12.124 – Time Limitations and Extensions
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 2612 – Entry Into Customs Territory of the United States
14
eCFR. 40 CFR 19.4 – Statutory Civil Monetary Penalties, as Adjusted for Inflation, and Tables
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 2615 – Penalties
16
eCFR. 40 CFR Part 704 – Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements