Customs brokers should remain a key part of the global supply chain as CBP shifts to better operate in the modern trade environment, providing a “multiplier effect” to the agency’s education and data integrity efforts, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments to CBP dated Feb. 4. As e-commerce causes the number of importers to explode and the associated risks to increase accordingly, brokers should be considered “trusted partners, delivering the agency from the chaos of dealing with hundreds of thousands of importers,” the NCBFAA said.
The International Trade Commission posted the 2019 Basic Edition of the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The new HTS implements the removal of Mauritania from eligibility for African Growth and Opportunity Act benefits, makes widespread changes to units of measure throughout the tariff schedule, and adds new statistical suffixes for infant footwear, aluminum foil and paper, among other products. Most changes took effect Jan. 1.
The Scarbrough Group, which includes customs brokerage Scarbrough International, named Adam Hill president and chief operating officer, it said in a press release. Hill, a licensed customs broker, began at the company in 2006 as an import operations account representative
CBP's Office of Trade will be examining the effects of the recent partial federal government shutdown and what needs to be prioritized now that government operations are being funded again, an agency spokesman said. "Approximately 95% of the Office of Trade’s staff were furloughed and not working during the shutdown," he said. The agency "will be spending much of the next few weeks assessing program-by-program impact, and determining what, if any, delays in policy implementation there will be (including to new [Form] 5106 deployment)," the spokesman said. "As we undertake these assessments, we will be communicating with trade stakeholders to apprise them of impact, anticipated adjustments to schedule, etc."
A federal court in California on Jan. 25 denied an e-commerce fulfillment company’s bid for victory in a lawsuit alleging it violated BMW’s trademarks by importing counterfeit goods. More information is needed to determine whether Win.It America can be held liable for counterfeiting as an importer, or if it isn’t responsible because it merely facilitated sales and placed shipping labels on the alleged counterfeit products, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California said in its ruling.
CBP is now accepting claims for drawback on Section 301 duties on products from China, said John Leonard, executive director-trade policy and programs, on a conference call held Jan. 23 to discuss issues related to the ongoing federal government shutdown. The agency has fixed a bug in ACE that was preventing Section 301 drawback claims and is now able to begin processing, though the agency’s ability to resolve particular issues will be limited due to staffing issues caused by the ongoing shutdown, he said.
The Court of International Trade on Jan. 18 ordered an importer to pay more than $500,000 in penalties and unpaid duties for misclassifying goods that should have been subject to antidumping and countervailing duties, though it declined to impose the full amount requested by the government. Six Star Wholesale allegedly imported wire hangers and polyethylene retail carrier bags from China under the wrong tariff classifications, then failed to defend itself in court against the penalty action.
CBP will postpone the deployment of CBP Form 5106 that was planned for Feb. 9, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said. During a Jan. 16 conference call, CBP said it would make the decision to delay only if the government remained closed as of Feb. 1 (see 1901160025). Following some concerns raised during that call, the agency apparently revised its plans. "Considering the trade concerns presented and deployment planning needed, the 5106 Cutover scheduled for 2/9/2019 will be postponed due to the government shutdown," CBP said, according to an NCBFAA email. "A new cutover date will be established and messaged with an advance notice once the government reopens."
Measures of compliance among steel products importers are down since the imposition of sections 301 and 232 tariffs, said the American Institute for International Steel’s Customs Committee in its 2018 year-end report. CBP told the trade association that compliance measured by the letter of the law for imports in Harmonized Tariff Schedule chapters 72 and 73 was down to 96.46 percent in fiscal year 2018, and down to 97.8 percent when measured by major trade discrepancies, CBP told AIIS, the report said. “Issues with Section 232 and Section 301 entries presumably contributed to the reductions,” the report said.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai seeking an emergency Monday briefing for committee staff on why the commission hasn't ended top wireless carriers' unauthorized location data disclosures (see 1901100046). The briefing “cannot wait” until the end of the partial government shutdown (see 1901100020), which has put most FCC activities on hiatus, because it's “in the interest of public safety and national security,” Pallone said. The agency “once again appears to have dragged its feet in protecting consumers,” he said. “While some carriers have now recommitted to stopping such unauthorized disclosure, the public can no longer rely on their voluntary promises to protect this extremely sensitive information.” The FCC “must take immediate action to ensure no wireless carrier is allowing the rampant disclosure of real-time location data and take enforcement action against carriers that violated the Commission’s rules and the trust of their customers,” Pallone said. Verizon is joining AT&T in ending location aggregation agreements, a practice criticized over claims carriers sold customers' real-time location that bounty hunters accessed, a spokesperson said Friday. Verizon noted it wasn’t among companies -- AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile -- included in the Motherboard report. Verizon and the other three major carriers agreed to end such arrangements in the summer in response to a report on data brokers enabling misuse of customer data. “We have followed through on our commitment to terminate aggregation arrangements and provide location information only with the express consent of our customers,” Verizon said. The company ended deals with data broker Zumigo and by March will end agreements with roadside assistance companies, Verizon said. T-Mobile and Sprint didn't comment.