The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its fall 2018 regulatory agenda for CBP. The agenda includes a new mention of a proposed rulemaking involving Privacy Act exemptions for some information collected through the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT). "In this proposed rulemaking, the Department proposes to exempt portions of the system of records from one or more provisions of the Privacy Act because of criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement requirements," CBP said. The agency is aiming to issue the proposal in February, it said.
The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of Oct. 17 (some may also be given separate headlines):
Steel tubing made in the U.S. that is sent to Mexico for painting and other treatments and then returned to the U.S is not subject to the Section 232 tariffs, CBP said in a July 31 ruling. The ruling, NY N298549, was requested by customs broker Alex Romero on behalf of Merchant Metals. The request focused on "the country of origin of steel tubing/pipe for use as fence posts in ornamental fence panels," CBP said.
CBP must issue final regulations on drawback under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act by Dec. 17, 2018, the Court of International Trade said in an Oct. 12 decision. Capping a contentious case brought by a set of customs brokers and importers (see 1803260048), CIT Judge Jane Restani ordered that the final regulations must take effect immediately on Dec. 17, except for certain excise tax drawback provisions that may take effect 60 days later.
CBP will not move forward with plans for a wide-ranging reorganization of its ACE customer support office after receiving negative feedback from the trade community, said Steve Zaccaro, chief of the agency’s Client Representative Branch, on a conference call held Oct. 4. The agency will reassign some software vendors, importers and brokers currently assigned to overburdened client representatives, but the “vast majority” will not be affected by the changes, he said.
The customs chapter for the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or revised NAFTA, includes some provisions aimed at customs brokers. Those provisions, included in Article 7.21, stipulate that self-filing must be permitted and that customs broker licensing requirements must be transparent. Also, "no Party shall impose arbitrary limits to the number of ports or locations that a customs broker may operate," it says. "A Party shall allow a licensed customs broker to electronically submit a customs declaration and import documentation to the electronic systems" at "any port at which it is licensed to operate."
The World Customs Organization should continue to use the Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate (SAFE) Trade for e-commerce rather than create a set of entirely new standards for that purpose, said Christa Brzozowski, Department of Homeland Security deputy assistant secretary for trade and transport. Brzozowski spoke Monday on a panel about the WCO at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference. “We question whether there is value in creating sort of two distinct rules of the road, two distinct sets of tools for 'traditional flows' and 'e-commerce flows,'" she said. Instead, DHS would like to see the WCO “look and harken back to the bedrock principles of SAFE and not relitigate, not readjudicate, things we've spent a lot of time and effort to develop, but really try to identify those areas -- be it risk management, be it data, be it partnerships -- where the key characteristics of e-commerce and digitalization requires us to perhaps amend or update some of the compendium tools, ” Brzozowski said. There's also talk of a pilot to prevent counterfeiting and piracy, said Geodis’ Mary Jo Muoio. “This pilot is working with maritime transport industry to raise awareness, encourage them to know their customers" and “enhance their own risk profiling and information sharing” to prevent intellectual property rights violations, she said.
The World Customs Organization should continue to use the Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate (SAFE) Trade for e-commerce rather than create a set of entirely new standards for that purpose, said Christa Brzozowski, Department of Homeland Security deputy assistant secretary for trade and transport. Brzozowski spoke Monday on a panel about the WCO at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference. “We question whether there is value in creating sort of two distinct rules of the road, two distinct sets of tools for 'traditional flows' and 'e-commerce flows,'" she said. Instead, DHS would like to see the WCO “look and harken back to the bedrock principles of SAFE and not relitigate, not readjudicate, things we've spent a lot of time and effort to develop, but really try to identify those areas -- be it risk management, be it data, be it partnerships -- where the key characteristics of e-commerce and digitalization requires us to perhaps amend or update some of the compendium tools, ” Brzozowski said. There's also talk of a pilot to prevent counterfeiting and piracy, said Geodis’ Mary Jo Muoio. “This pilot is working with maritime transport industry to raise awareness, encourage them to know their customers" and “enhance their own risk profiling and information sharing” to prevent intellectual property rights violations, she said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is amending the list of goods from China newly subject to 10 percent Section 301 tariffs to remove frozen salmon and make conforming changes to subheadings covering wood. Effective Sept. 24, USTR is removing from the list subheadings 0304.81.10 and 0304.81.50, which cover frozen salmon, in order “to account fully for the extensive public comments and testimony previously provided” in the Section 301 investigation.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission will hold a public meeting this fall to discuss next steps for its pilot of electronic filing in ACE, said Sabrina Keller, deputy director of CPSC’s Office of Import Surveillance, at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference Sept. 24 in Washington. The commission recently published the results of a study of data elements found on CPSC certificates of compliance and their relevance to targeting, she said.