CBP's Online Liquidation Notification Posting Should Be Immediate, NCBFAA Says
CBP's regulatory changes for online liquidation notifications should require that the agency post the liquidation information as it happens, rather than "within a reasonable period" as proposed, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments to CBP (here). CBP proposed last month to allow notices of liquidations and liquidation suspensions and extensions to be posted on CBP's website rather than at the ports (see 1610130018). "In the electronic environment, CBP has the ability to post these liquidations immediately when they occur," the NCBFAA said. "There is no longer a basis for delayed notification and the regulation should be revised to provide that notice of liquidation for these entries will be posted on the date of liquidation. There is no basis to distinguish these entries from entries which are manually liquidated."
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The regulations should also stipulate that the information posted to the agency's website is conspicuous, it said. "We believe that the regulation should specify that the liquidation link will be visible on the CBP home page so that it is indeed conspicuous and remains so without regard to current or future website design," the trade group said. "The trade should not have to search the website to locate the liquidation link." The regulations should also specify how long the liquidation information will remain on CBP's site, the group said. While CBP's summary of the proposal mentioned the notices being available for a minimum of 15 months, that's not included in draft regulations and should be, the NCBFAA said. "This is critical for issues relating to the timeliness of claims and jurisdiction in the Court of International Trade," it said. "Similarly, the process for requesting access to notices that are no longer available on the website should be codified in the regulations."
The changes should also apply to reliquidation notices, currently not mentioned in the proposal, the United States Fashion Industry Association said in its comments (here). The regulation should also require that the notices be searchable to make for more efficient use, the USFIA said. The group also inquired whether the majority of liquidations will continue to occur on Fridays, and suggested that CBP spell out how the posting dates, which will serve as legal evidence of liquidation, will appear.