Drawback filers may “effective immediately” submit claims for refunds on Section 301 or Section 201 duties, CBP said in a Feb. 8 CSMS message. Filers will no longer receive error messages related to unit of measure (UOM) mismatches that had been occurring “because the underlying import did not have a UOM associated to a Chapter 99” tariff number or because they had left the mandatory UOM field blank, CBP said.
Four trade lawyers from White & Case say that 2019 could have even more trade tumult than did 2018, especially if the Trump administration levies tariffs on auto imports from Europe or Japan. Their alert, published Feb. 6 and with Scott Lincicome as the lead author, talks about prospects for a China trade deal, ratification of the new NAFTA, a continuing truce with Japan and Europe, and other trade developments expected this year.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP won’t go forward with its planned deployment of new Form 5106 until at least March 16, an agency official said on a call with members of the trade community. The agency has not yet set a date for the release, and may push the transition back even further depending on the level of readiness, he said on the Feb. 7 call. Testing is ongoing on the new Form 5106 in CBP’s ACE Certification environment, after deployment of the latest version of the importer ID form was delayed partly due to the recent partial federal government shutdown (see 1901170046).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Customs brokers should remain a key part of the global supply chain as CBP shifts to better operate in the modern trade environment, providing a “multiplier effect” to the agency’s education and data integrity efforts, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments to CBP dated Feb. 4. As e-commerce causes the number of importers to explode and the associated risks to increase accordingly, brokers should be considered “trusted partners, delivering the agency from the chaos of dealing with hundreds of thousands of importers,” the NCBFAA said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The Fish and Wildlife Service seeks comments on its import and export declarations for fish and wildlife species as it submits the paperwork requirements to the Office of Management and Budget for reapproval, FWS said in a notice. Specifically, the agency seeks feedback on information collected in FWS Forms 3-177 and 3-177a, as well as on related information collected via ACE. Comments, due April 2, should address the necessity of the requirements, their burden on importers and exporters, and ways to improve the information collection.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Improvements to the manifest system, Post Summary Correction and reconciliation functionalities are some issues that deserve attention from CBP in order to modernize the agency's trade processing, the Trade Support Network said in comments to CBP. Tom Gould, of the TSN's Trade Leadership Council and Sandler Travis, submitted the comments on behalf of the TSN in CBP's request for input on creating a new customs framework (see 1812200003). All comments are due Feb. 4 and only two other comments were filed in the docket as of Feb. 1. Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Global Coalition for Efficient Logistics also filed comments.