Detailed List of Broker Regulation Recommendations Among COAC Documents for April 27 Meeting
CBP posted its agenda and some other agency documents for the upcoming Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) meeting on April 27. Among the posted items are a detailed look at planned recommendations for changes to customs broker regulations (here). The document includes a list of the proposed changes with any new or deleted language highlighted some brief descriptions of the logic behind the proposals. A member of the COAC broker regulations working group recently previewed many of the recommendations (see 1604220023). The agenda is (here).
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Among the recommendations is some discussion of new regulations required by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 to set minimum standards for brokers' collection of information on importer clients (see 1602170074). The working group recommended that the regulations call for brokers to "take reasonable steps" to verify the authenticity of information on importers. "In cases where the review calls into question the authenticity of the information, the broker will conduct a further review inquiry, as practical, to identify the importer," said the group, which took into consideration the coming revised form 5106 (see 1604200017). The rationale behind this approach is that "beyond requesting the importer’s information and open source research, brokers do not have sufficient authority to further vet the importer," said the working group.
Also considered were the costs associated with the recommended changes. "From the broker’s perspective, costs include the time the broker must take to collect the information from the importer and the additional time to verify the collected information via open sources," it said. "From CBP’s perspective, costs will include any costs associated with reprogramming/enhancing the ACE portal to collect and transmit the collected information from the broker, including the costs associated with establishing a unique identifier for transmittal. Costs to the broker could be reduced by enabling the importer to transmit the information directly to CBP." Such changes are seen as a "net positive addition because the additional information increases confidence in the importer’s transactions," it said.
The COAC must still approve the recommendations, so some changes are still possible. CBP will consider the importer identification recommendations as the agency drafts its own recommendations, CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said recently (here). A report on the changes is due by Aug. 22. CBP posted the below documents:
Trade Modernization
- COAC Broker Regulations Recommendations (here)
- COAC Broker Regulations Working Group Recommendations (here)
- CBP Issue Paper on Broker Regulations (here)
- COAC Center Uniformity Draft Recommendations (here)
- COAC Trade Modernization Executive Summary (here)
- CBP Issue Paper on Centers (here)
Trusted Trader
- Trusted Trader Subcommittee Executive Summary (here)
Trade Enforcement and Revenue​
- TERC Subcommittee Trade Executive Summary (here)
- CBP Issue Paper on Antidumping and Countervailing Duties (here)
- CBP TERC IPR Issue Paper April 2016 (here)
One U.S. Government at the Border
- COAC 1USG Trade Executive Summary 2016 (here)
- CBP ACE-Single Window COAC Issue Paper (here)
- BIEC- ITDS PGA Pilot Status (here)
Export
- COAC Export Subcommittee Trade Summary (here)
- CBP Electronic Export Manifest Pilots Issue Paper Update (here)
- CBP Post Departure Filing Issue Paper Update (here)
Global Supply Chain