A federal judge sentenced a customs broker to 10 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, over a federal excise tax evasion scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a news release. Alberto Rodriguez, of Briarwood, New York, pleaded guilty in June to charges involving false entry summaries to misrepresent tobacco excise taxes due on large quantities of cigars (see 1806110013). Rodriguez also must pay $503,681.15 in restitution to CBP, equal to the estimated amount of tobacco excise taxes he evaded.
CBP is seeing an increase in bond insufficiency related to new sections 301 and 232 tariffs and expects that trend to continue, the agency told Colleen Clarke, vice president-business development at Roanoke Insurance Group. The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of American said in an Aug. 20 email to members that CBP told Clarke that the agency "is urging brokers and sureties to be proactive in determining bond sufficiency." Roanoke Trade mentioned the issue during a webinar last month (see 1807260011).
Coldwell Banker took a tempered view of the smart home in an August newsletter sent by agents to prospective home buyers. The newsletter featured an article that first appeared in real estate industry trade publication RISMedia in June, titled “Smart Homes: The Way of the Future or a Risk to Homeowners?” The article posed the question to prospective home buyers: “What is the true cost of this convenience?”
CBP needs to give "immediate attention" to multiple unanswered questions related to bonding in the Air Cargo Advance Screening rules, the International Trade Surety Association said in comments filed in response to the ACAS interim rule that took effect in June (see 1806110043). "The Interim rule is silent on the formula to be used to set bond amounts, whether there is a minimum bond amount or whether Single Transaction bonds may be used to secure ACAS obligations, whether multiple penalties may be claimed against the same principal and/or multiple principals on the same transaction," the ITSA said. "We recommend that these issues be addressed immediately with the surety industry and with other stakeholders."
ATLANTA -- A “proof of concept” set to begin in September will provide for brainstorming and early-stage testing on the use of blockchain technology in processes related to NAFTA and the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), Vincent Annunziato, director of CBP’s Business Transformation and Innovation Division, told a group of reporters at the CBP 2018 Trade Symposium on Aug. 14. CBP will consider not only the technical capabilities of blockchain and any business benefits but also whether use of the technology fits with the agency’s regulatory and policy scheme.
Coldwell Banker took a tempered view of the smart home in an August newsletter sent by agents to prospective home buyers. The newsletter featured an article that first appeared in real estate industry trade publication RISMedia in June, titled “Smart Homes: The Way of the Future or a Risk to Homeowners?” The article posed the question to prospective home buyers: “What is the true cost of this convenience?”
ATLANTA -- China's inaction in the face of accusations of unfair trade practices continues to drive the dispute between it and the U.S., Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish said while speaking at the CBP 2018 Trade Symposium on Aug. 15. "I recognize that many of you may have concerns about the tariffs being imposed. However, I can assure you these actions were not taken lightly," he said. The tariffs follow many years of failed discussions with the Chinese, including under the current administration, "in which the Chinese had repeatedly made commitments to correct their harmful, unfair and distortive actions and then refused to honor those commitments," he said.
CBP shouldn't require Air Cargo Advance Screening filings for each cargo loading for flights to the U.S., the Express Association of America and Cargo Airline Association said in joint comments filed in response to the ACAS interim rule that took effect in June (see 1806110043). The groups said CBP should remove a footnote that requires ACAS data filings "for the cargo loaded on each leg of the flight prior to loading of that cargo." Comments are due Aug. 13.
BluJay Solutions acquired Grosvenor International Systems, a customs and compliance solutions company for UK and European markets, BluJay said in a news release. Grosvenor "is a great match for BluJay’s global single-window Customs platform," said Lorenzo Rossetti, Grosvenor’s customs development director. "Our technology is modern and flexible, which will allow for rapid integration. In the UK, 80 percent of import customs declarations are ‘self-filed’ away from the border by importers or customs brokers, allowing for speedy movement of goods through the port/airport. We generate approximately 35 percent of those self-filed declarations in the UK, so you know our system and processes are rock-solid.”
The Food and Drug Administration posted its updated list of filer evaluation outcomes for August 2018. The frequency of filer evaluations depends on the number of lines filed by the company. An outcome of "paperless" means FDA has determined that electronic filing is appropriate, while "corrective action plan" means FDA has found an elevated error rate and has directed the filer to fix the issue, and "dual-mode filer" means the company has failed to implement corrective action plans and has been returned to dual-mode (paper and electronic) filing. The following filer evaluation outcomes were updated in FDA's August 2018 list: