International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 20-24 in case they were missed.
The ACE Group's U.S. retail operation began offering an updated Maritime Open Cargo Policy that includes multiple coverage components into a single form, the company said. The single form includes an "easy-to-understand Conveyances clause, which includes the Vessel Classification wording directly in the form" and "combined Warehouse-to-Warehouse and Marine-Extension clauses," it said.
CBP said it resolved a problem with about 2,500 carrier and importer accounts that account identifiers are rejected when transmitted in an EDI or portal transaction, said CBP in a CSMS message. Affected users also couldn't access their ACE Secure Data Portal account, said CBP.
CBP posted a number of presentations and documents that the agency showed at a recent Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) conference. The conference, held May 21 in Baltimore, included several technical overviews of ACE progress and future plans. The agency is planning to require ACE filing for manifest and cargo release by the end of 2015 and will require filing everything through ACE by the end of 2016, it said in a presentation on the ACE Plan Forward (here).
The Food and Drug Administration needs to do more to use the trusted trader model to manage food safety risks, said the American Association of Exporters and Importers. “Moving away from certifying individual transactions to certifying supply chains allows FDA and industry to focus supply chain security resources more effectively, thereby targeting high-risk operators and supply chains,” said AAEI in comments on FDA’s Jan. 16 preventative controls proposal (see 13010429). “Trusted traders are industry leaders in their respective trade as well as leaders in supply chain security and compliance,” AAEI said. “They represent low risk and should not be subjected to the same level or type of oversight as others not so designated.”
The Department of Homeland Security funding bill, approved by the House Appropriations Committee May 22, includes about $10.6 billion for CBP, an increase of $35 million above President Obama’s 2014 budget request that fully funds the administration's request for 1,600 new officers. The House bill allocates $38.9 billion in discretionary spending for DHS and has already garnered support from the National Treasury Employees Union (see 13052322).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
Industry representatives commended the Senate customs reauthorization bill in its first formal hearing May 22, and said the bill’s provisions on intellectual property rights, the Automated Commercial Environment, the International Trade Data System and de minimis will go a long way towards facilitating trade. The bill -- S-662, the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act -- was introduced by Senate Finance Committee leaders Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in March (see 13032906 for more on specific provisions in the bill).
Customs reauthorization legislation - an actual, tangible bill - is necessary to help shift CBP's focus back to trade facilitation and codify progress the agency has already made, Senators and industry representatives said at a May 22 hearing on S-662, the customs bill introduced by Finance Committee leaders in March. "The real question is how we reinvigorate this commitment to the trade side of CBP," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., at the Finance Committee hearing. Senators have tried politely asking CBP to do this, through letters and in hearings, but "that hasn't worked," Wyden said. "That's why we felt we needed to have an actual piece of legislation."
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues: