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.
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).