CBP will push back the mandatory use date for e214 foreign-trade zones admissions in ACE to Dec. 9, Acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference on Sept. 11 in Washington. The delay of the deadline, previously set for Sept. 16, comes in response to concerns from industry, McAleenan said. The agency planned to make a formal announcement on Sept. 11, he said.
CBP will postpone until Dec. 9 the mandatory use date for e214 foreign-trade zones admissions in ACE, Acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference on Sept. 11 in Washington. The delay of the deadline, previously set for Sept. 16, comes in response to concerns from industry, McAleenan said. CBP will make a formal announcement on Sept. 11, he said.
Members of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) were set to lobby this week for legislation that would prevent brokers from absorbing certain financial liability when importer clients file for bankruptcy, NCBFAA Legislative Representative Jon Kent said during the group’s Sept. 11 Government Affairs Conference in Washington. Importers that file for bankruptcy sometimes retroactively try to recover payments made to customs brokers, or through them to CBP, that were made within 90 days prior to the filing, according to an NCBFAA position paper. This scenario poses an “immediate and troublesome threat” to brokers in terms of financial liability, sometimes totaling well into the “six-figure range,” according to the position paper.
Trade executives agreed during a Sept. 6 conference that better alignment of NAFTA de minimis levels could benefit commerce, but offered different opinions on the best path toward uniformity. Jon Kent, who lobbies for the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA), said during the Air Cargo Industry Summit that there should be a “reconciliation” between de minimis thresholds in the U.S., Canada and Mexico but that the U.S. $800 level might not be the optimal benchmark. He suggested the Trump administration might even consider reducing the level to help close the gap between the U.S. standard and Canada’s $15 threshold and Mexico’s $50 benchmark. “You’re importing huge quantities of goods,” he said. “I don’t know how the administration can reconcile that big jump in imports with its own predispositions.”
A former New York resident was arrested and charged with smuggling and conspiracy for an alleged scheme to import some $250 million in counterfeit footwear and apparel by way of importer identity theft, the Justice Department said in a press release. Su Ming Ling purportedly provided stolen identities to five separate customs brokers in Illinois and California to bring in 200 shipping containers of counterfeit goods from China, DOJ said.
CBP on Aug. 29 issued additional guidance on cargo affected by port closures from Hurricane Harvey. For now, nothing needs to be done for entries and entry summaries that have already been filed, even for cargo diverted to other ports. Pending entry summaries for entries already filed at affected ports should be filed at the same port, while pending entries should be filed at the new port of arrival, CBP said. In the long-term, the trade community should expect the Port of Houston and other affected ports to be closed for the “foreseeable future” and plan their shipments accordingly, said Gary Schreffler, acting chief of CBP’s Cargo Control & Release Branch, during a call held Aug. 29.
Among the express industry’s hopes for CBP regulatory reforms is elimination of rules governing importer storage of records of a non-original format, and switching from a district permit structure to a “customs territory permit structure,” according to a list of recommendations provided by the Express Association of America to Tim Skud, Treasury Department deputy assistant secretary for tax, trade. Skud mentioned the recommendations at the Aug. 23 meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, and said the EAA's were the only ones he had received so far. CBP is in the process of compiling an "inventory" of deregulatory actions to comply with Trump administration initiatives including the two-for-one rule, officials have said (see 1705090020).
The Court of International Trade on Aug. 23 ordered a Texas company and its owner to pay a penalty for negligent misstatements on import documentation, though at a level far below what the government requested. Neither Deladiep or its owner and sole corporate officer John Delatorre appeared in court to defend themselves, but CIT nonetheless cut the penalty by 80 percent to $17,548.12, finding the violation of 19 USC 1592 did not warrant the $87,740.60 maximum.
Multiple recommendations submitted by the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for Section 321 entries proved to be contentious, eliciting disagreement among members during the Aug. 23 COAC meeting in San Diego. The presentation of the recommendations at the meeting included the unusual step of votes and discussions on each individual recommendation. While some of the recommendations faced opposition, all were ultimately approved by the COAC. "There's a lot of uncertainty in this area because it's a new and different model that was not necessarily envisioned or anticipated by the market, by those that are participating in it or by our government partners," said Cindy Allen, the co-chair of the Trade Modernization Subcommittee.
CBP posted draft recommendations from the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) e-commerce working group on Section 321 entries ahead of the COAC meeting on Aug. 23 in San Diego. The recommendations "are intended to improve the import process from a facilitation and enforcement perspective for section 321-eligible shipments across all modes of transportation," the working group said. CBP issued an interim final rule on the de minimis level last year and raised a number of questions on the role of other agencies' requirements for such shipments (see 1608250029).