Duplicates of customs broker records may be stored on servers outside the U.S. as long as the originals are stored on U.S. servers, Customs and Border Protection said. The March 10 ruling was disclosed by a stakeholder last week and confirmed to us by the recipient. The ruling requested by Craig Seelig at WiseTech Global examined WiseTech's use of a foreign server in Australia as a secondary site. The primary site would be in the U.S. CBP requires that for broker records stored on a server, the server must be located in the customs territory of the U.S., the agency replied. “This is where CBP has jurisdiction to issue a summons and inspect records.” There’s “no rule applicable to duplicate records,” the agency said. “It seems logical then that once the recordkeeping regulations are met, including 19 C.F.R. § 111.23(a), requiring that records be retained at any location within the customs territory of the United States, that duplicates of these records may be maintained outside the territory of the United States." Grunfeld Desiderio lawyer Alan Klestadt, who told a webinar of the ruling, said that, with a coming update to customs broker regulations, more cloud-based recordkeeping could come to be OK’d.
Duplicates of customs broker records may be stored on servers outside the U.S. as long as the originals are stored on U.S. servers, Customs and Border Protection said. The March 10 ruling was disclosed by a stakeholder last week and confirmed to us by the recipient. The ruling requested by Craig Seelig at WiseTech Global examined WiseTech's use of a foreign server in Australia as a secondary site. The primary site would be in the U.S. CBP requires that for broker records stored on a server, the server must be located in the customs territory of the U.S., the agency replied. “This is where CBP has jurisdiction to issue a summons and inspect records.” There’s “no rule applicable to duplicate records,” the agency said. “It seems logical then that once the recordkeeping regulations are met, including 19 C.F.R. § 111.23(a), requiring that records be retained at any location within the customs territory of the United States, that duplicates of these records may be maintained outside the territory of the United States." Grunfeld Desiderio lawyer Alan Klestadt, who told a webinar of the ruling, said that, with a coming update to customs broker regulations, more cloud-based recordkeeping could come to be OK’d.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 20-24 in case they were missed.
The Commerce Department is proposing new regulations that would create an Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System. Similar to the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System in place since 2005, the new scheme would require importers of aluminum or their customs brokers to submit information in an online portal to obtain an automatically issued license, then submit the license number with entry summary documentation. Comments are due May 29.
Janet Fields, director of risk management at John S. James Co., was elected April 18 the new National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America president, replacing Amy Magnus, who will now be chairman of the board. Fields has spent her whole career at John S. James Co., and has been a licensed customs broker since 1988.
Duplicates of customs broker records may be stored on servers outside the U.S. as long as the originals are stored on U.S. servers, CBP said in a March 10 ruling. The ruling, which was requested by Craig Seelig at WiseTech Global, examined WiseTech's use of a foreign server in Australia as a secondary site for its customs records storage.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is seeing “an unprecedented connectivity with CBP” so far through the COVID-19 pandemic, said Alan Klestadt, customs counsel to the NCBFAA, during an April 21 webinar with lawyers for the association. “We're speaking with senior headquarters officials on a daily basis, multiple times a day, talking with them about developing policy, whether it is statement processing, duty deferral,” said Klestadt, a lawyer at Grunfeld Desiderio. That's particularly important when others in government “don't appreciate the granularity” of detail that customs brokers need to “effectively implement the policy decisions and the policy goals that the administration is pursuing.”
CBP clarified its timing requirements for customs duty deferrals (see 2004200024) in April during an April 20 conference call with industry, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in an emailed update. The April 20 filing deadline “is only relevant to the statements that are being processed for payments” on April 21, CBP said, according to the NCBFAA. “For April 30, you have until April 29, at 11:59 P.M., to effect changes on that statement.” Meanwhile, CBP also posted a list of frequently asked questions. Among other things, CBP said drawback claims against estimated duties that are being deferred shouldn't be filed. “CBP is advising that filers delaying duty payment during the 90 day postponement period due to financial hardships, should not file drawback claims until payments have been properly made on the import entry(s),” it said.
Governments should suspend certain licensing requirements, expedite customs clearances and provide relief from customs penalties during the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Customs Organization's Private Sector Consultative Group said in comments released April 16. Such measures should be adopted by countries across the globe to provide relief for the struggling trade community and to help trade continue to flow, the PSCG said.
President Donald Trump authorized the temporary extension of “deadlines, for importers suffering significant financial hardship because of COVID-19,” in an April 19 Executive Order. “To qualify for this temporary postponement, an importer must demonstrate a significant financial hardship,” CBP said in a prepublication version of a temporary final rule. While the CBP notice limits the deferrals to March and April payments, the EO gives the Treasury secretary broad authority to postpone duty collections during the COVID-19 national emergency.