CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet April 15, remotely, beginning at 1 p.m., CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by April 14.
CBP will no longer take requests to defer payments of customs duties, and payments of previously deferred duties must be “initiated” by March 27, the agency said in a CSMS message. “Single payments, daily and periodic monthly statement payments of estimated duties, taxes and fees that should have been tendered from 3/20/2020 through 3/26/2020, must be initiated by 3/27/2020,” it said. “If a trade member did not pay CBP for estimated duties, taxes and fees due 3/20/2020 through 3/26/2020, payment should be initiated via FedWire or ACH credit by 3/27/2020.”
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is “trying to assess” the impact on its export certification activities of recent decisions by states to close non-essential businesses, the agency said, according to a March 23 update from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. “As of now, we do not have any impacts identified,” APHIS said, as relayed by the NCBFAA. But inquiries on operating status should be directed to local businesses or APHIS offices for the most up-to-date information, it said. “The situation is fluid and we will provide guidance if anything changes,” APHIS said.
The Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has not yet seen any impacts to cargo or inspections as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said, according to an update from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America sent March 23. “At the current time we have not experienced any impacts to cargo related to changes in CBP or USDA APHIS activities,” APHIS said. As for inspections, the agency is also seeing no delays. “We have moved to mostly digital imaging to enable continued pest identification services. Plant Inspection Stations and Ports are operational. The majority of our policy office staff are in telework status and still accessible by phone and email as normal,” APHIS said. The agency has informed CBP that “USDA will accept scanned versions of phytosanitary certificates uploaded into DIS while the emergency lasts,” it said. “We understand that many brokers are having difficulty accessing offices or getting required documents from the country of origin. We will be sending this information out shortly,” APHIS said, according to the NCBFAA.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America has presented a long list of measures CBP could take to ease the pain for brokers dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, with the trade group’s request for a deferral of duty payments (see 2003230025) just one item of many, NCBFAA President Amy Magnus said in an interview March 24. Many of them are requests that CBP delay deadlines -- including, for example, for responses to CF-28 requests for information -- that are harder to meet as clients close their workplaces and operate skeleton staffs, Magnus said.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is asking members to send letters to their congressional representatives to ask for them to include a change to bankruptcy law in a stimulus package responding to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are asking Congress to include H.R. 2261, the Customs Business Fairness Act, so that when importers go bankrupt, the customs duties they reimbursed brokers for aren't part of 90-day claw-back provisions under bankruptcy law. “We believe that many importers may find the need to file bankruptcy due to the issues surrounding the COVID-19 crisis and the disruption to businesses it has caused,” the trade group said.
Tourism between the U.S. and Mexico is barred, beginning at 11:59 p.m. March 20, and continuing until April 20, but “this temporary alteration in land ports of entry operations should not interrupt legitimate trade between the two nations or disrupt critical supply chains that ensure food, fuel, medicine, and other critical materials reach individuals on both sides of the border,” the U.S. government said in a notice. Individuals engaged in lawful cross-border trade are specifically exempted from the restrictions.
CBP port operations remain unaffected by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with commercial traffic remaining steady and cargo flows near normal levels, CBP said on calls held March 19 and 20. But the agency does expect a slowdown in Detroit and Laredo, according to a summary of the March 19 call emailed by the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, and the number of trucks crossing the border in San Diego is down 2% to 5% over the past couple of days, CBP’s San Diego field office said on a call March 20.
CBP is looking at allowing extensions for duty payments in light of the ongoing response activities related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a March 19 email, following an industry update call with CBP. The NCBFAA and other industry members recently suggested in a letter that CBP consider such extensions, it said. “CBP understands the major impact this could have and is currently researching to see if the plan is feasible,” the NCBFAA said. “In the meantime, CBP is considering case-by-case deferrals.“