CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- CBP is considering offering trusted trader benefits to those in the e-commerce world as a way to improve compliance, said John Leonard, executive director-trade policy and programs at CBP, during a May 2 panel discussion at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's annual conference. The hope is to "incentivize all these new actors in this space to improve the platforms and marketplaces, etc., to be more compliant," he said. "Part of that could involve the Trusted Trader program" and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, he said. CBP "is looking at this very closely."
CBP issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- The Census Bureau expects to issue proposed rules for routed export transactions by the fall, said Omari Wooden, assistant division chief, International Trade Management Division at Census. Census is in the process of going through many issues raised by industry in comments to the agency (see 1712070039), Wooden said at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's annual conference on May 1. "We are the government, so instead of months, we give you seasons, so probably sometime in the fall we're hopeful to come out with something," he said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 23-27 in case they were missed.
RANCHO MIRAGE, California -- Much of the $34 million in "additional money earmarked for ACE" within the recent omnibus government funding bill is already "planned out," said Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls, while speaking at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's annual conference on May 1. "That money was to be allocated for new development or enhancements in the ACE process," he said. CBP has a priority list, he said. Among the factors for the priority list was a list of requests provided to CBP from the NCBFAA (see 1802200043).
CBP is unjustifiably holding up regulatory changes for drawback required by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 by including them in a 450-page regulatory package that may take years to wind through the rulemaking process, said several companies challenging CBP’s interim drawback procedures at the Court of International Trade in a recent legal brief. Responding to the government’s motion to dismiss their case, the plaintiffs said part of the reason CBP hasn’t yet issued its new drawback calculation rules is likely because its upcoming Part 190 proposal includes non-urgent, optional conforming regulations that go beyond Congress’ mandate.
Recent changes to the Food and Drug Administration’s ACE supplemental guide will not take effect until further notice, an FDA official said April 26 on CBP’s biweekly conference call on ACE. The only exception is the addition of a new affirmation of compliance (AoC) “VQI” for CBP’s voluntary qualified importer program for food importers, which should happen in October, the official said. In the meantime, filers and software vendors should start phasing out anything removed in the latest version of the supplemental guide, “but there’s no planned date at this time to make any changes,” the official said. CBP released version 2.6.1 of the guide on April 24 (see 1804240034).
Though a new accounting class code will be implemented April 28 in ACE for duties on coffee imported into Puerto Rico, shipments from the continental U.S. to Puerto Rico, which are still subject to the duties, will continue to be presented as non-Automated Broker Interface entry summaries on Customs Form 7501, CBP said in a CSMS message. The duties, in effect since the 1930s, cover coffee imports into Puerto Rico under Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) heading 0901 and subheadings 2101.11-2101.12, 2202.99.28 and 2202.99.90, and amount to $2.50 per pound on regular coffee and $1.25 per dutiable pound on coffee preparations, CBP says on its website. The issue of filing domestic shipments came up during CBP’s April 26 biweekly ACE call. The new accounting class code is only meant to automate imports of coffee from foreign countries, which have up to now been filed non-ABI, a CBP official said. The automation will allow CBP to pull out and calculate the Puerto Rico coffee duty separate from regular import tariffs, she said.
Stakeholders continue to ask for additional and enhanced ACE capabilities, and the agency is working on system enhancements to enable de minimis functionality, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told the House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security in his prepared opening statement. Creating de minimis functionality "will provide CBP access to previously unavailable admissibility data for low value shipments, resulting in improved cargo processing and use of enforcement resources," he said.