A Chinese aluminum company and its owner evaded more than $1.5 billion in antidumping and countervailing duties by importing aluminum extrusions masked as pallets, according to allegations in a complaint filed by the government on Sept. 14 in Central California U.S. District Court. The complaint seeks the forfeiture of 549 containers of extruded aluminum pallets imported by Perfectus Aluminum and detained by CBP at the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach in 2016.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America met with Federal Communications Commission officials on Sept. 12 to discuss the role of customs brokers for imported radio frequency devices, the NCBFAA said in an ex parte filing with the agency. The trade group has a number of concerns related to the agency's elimination of the FCC's Form 740 filing requirements for importing RF devices (see 1709110023) and what the NCBFAA sees as new compliance verification burdens for customs brokers (see 1706280065). With the elimination of Form 740, brokers now worry that "if no other party makes 'a determination,' the broker may be liable as one of the parties responsible for the determination, even though the broker does not have sufficient knowledge of the product to make that determination.
NorthPoint Logistics hired Amy Rice as its chief operating officer, it said in a press release. Rice, a licensed customs broker, was previously vice president of operations at Marisol International, it said.
The first electronic customs broker license exams will take place on Oct. 25, CBP said in a news release. Registration is open until Sept. 22 for that exam, it said. CBP adopted a final rule earlier this year to update the agency's testing procedures (see 1706290042).
CBP is aiming to release rules for entry filings of goods valued under the $800 de minimis threshold "before the end of the calendar year," said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner for the CBP Office of Trade, on Sept. 12 during the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference in Washington. CBP knows "it's a big deal" to customs brokers "whether we require the classification on all small packages," she said. It's a "thorny issue," but "I think we are close to having kind of the final conversations," so "look forward to that in the next couple months."
Representatives from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America are scheduled to meet with the FCC this week about their concerns about the agency's elimination of Form 740 filing requirements for imported RF devices (see 1707130032). NCBFAA is pleased the requirements went away, but worries about what's seen as new liabilities for customs brokers included in the order, said Alan Klestadt, a lawyer with Grunfeld Desiderio, who represents the NCBFAA. “The new regulations talk about customs brokers being responsible to validate FCC compliance,” Klestadt said during an NCBFAA conference Monday. “There isn't a person in this room who's qualified to do that, and I say that without any disrespect. There's just no way.” Naming customs brokers as “one of the parties with responsibility to validate” is a “huge additional burden,” he said.
Representatives from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America are scheduled to meet with the FCC this week about their concerns about the agency's elimination of Form 740 filing requirements for imported RF devices (see 1707130032). NCBFAA is pleased the requirements went away, but worries about what's seen as new liabilities for customs brokers included in the order, said Alan Klestadt, a lawyer with Grunfeld Desiderio, who represents the NCBFAA. “The new regulations talk about customs brokers being responsible to validate FCC compliance,” Klestadt said during an NCBFAA conference Monday. “There isn't a person in this room who's qualified to do that, and I say that without any disrespect. There's just no way.” Naming customs brokers as “one of the parties with responsibility to validate” is a “huge additional burden,” he said.
CBP’s Office of Field Operations has tentatively come up with some “parameters” for how it will handle Section 321 clearances going forward, said Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo conveyance security and controls, at a National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference on Sept. 11. The agency has agreed on a two-track solution, allowing continued clearance in the Automated Manifest System while providing new capabilities for Section 321 in the Automated Broker Interface, he said. ABI filing will include a 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule number as a data element, with the importer of record potentially optional, he said.
Representatives from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America are scheduled to meet with the Federal Communications Commission this week to outline some concerns related to the agency's elimination of the FCC's Form 740 filing requirements for imported radio frequency devices (see 1707130045). While the NCBFAA is pleased to see the Form 740 requirements go away, there's some worry over what's seen as new liabilities for customs brokers included in the FCC's order, said Alan Klestadt, a lawyer with Grunfeld Desiderio, who represents the NCBFAA. “The new regulations talk about customs brokers being responsible to validate FCC compliance,” Klestadt said during the NCBFAA Government Affairs Conference on Sept. 11. “There isn't a person in this room who's qualified to do that, and I say that without any disrespect. There's just no way.” Naming customs brokers as “one of the parties with responsibility to validate” marks a “huge additional burden,” he said. Klestadt said the NCBFAA is working to push back against "creep" by various agencies looking to use customs brokers to provide information about imports.
Reconciling U.S., Mexican and Canadian de minimis levels, and lowering the U.S.’s current $800 level if necessary, could prove difficult within NAFTA renegotations, Jon Kent, a lobbyist for the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, said Sept. 11 during the NCBFAA Government Affairs Conference. While some believe that raised de minimis levels are good for U.S. small businesses, Kent believes that’s a “fairy tale” that rapidly increased imports. “It chews up a lot of business,” Kent said of the U.S.’s now $800 de minimis level.