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).
CBP posted its updated Fish and Wildlife Service ACE implementation guide to its website on Aug. 11. The updated FWS partner government agency (PGA) message set now includes only two FWS flags, with one indicating a commodity always requires clearance by FWS and the other covering commodities that are “likely to contain commodities” that require FWS declarations and may be disclaimed. The new message set also adds a new ACE input for designated port exception permits, as expected (see 1703010042).
The U.S. government filed a federal court complaint on Aug. 10 alleging a Florida importer of wooden bedroom furniture sought to evade antidumping duties and customs fees by misclassifying and undervaluing its furniture imports. Blue Furniture Solutions evaded “millions of dollars” in duties and fees by classifying its wooden bedroom furniture as metal and office furniture to avoid a 216.01% antidumping duty rate, and stating false values of its imports on entry documentation.
A surety is on the hook for $2.2 million in uncollected duties even though the underlying bonds had missing information and errors, the Court of International Trade said in a decision issued Aug. 10. Hartford Fire Insurance argued the bonds violated customs regulations and were not enforceable contracts, but the court found those errors didn’t invalidate them, especially given that Hartford accepted premiums and submitted the bonds to CBP.
Customs brokerages, law firms, and other members of the trade community are angling to secure eligibility of distilled spirits for substitution drawback under new regulations set to take effect Feb. 24, industry sources said in recent interviews. On that date, simplified substitution drawback enacted through the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act will take effect, generally enabling substitution drawback to cover imports and exports with the same eight-digit HTS or Schedule B number. But questions surround whether CBP will deem distilled spirit exports eligible for substitution, due to the agency’s historical drawback treatment regarding alcohol-related excise taxes and technical classifications of U.S. production facilities.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 24-28 in case they were missed.
CBP hopes a long-discussed update to customs broker regulations in 19 CFR Part 111 will be considered "deregulatory" under the Trump administration's executive order on reducing regulatory burdens (see 1702070048), Robert Altneu, chief of CBP's Trade and Commercial Regualtions Branch, said July 26. That executive order requires that there be two offsetting regulations for every new "significant" regulation, and CBP now believes the Part 111 update could be such an offset, he said. Altneu spoke during a webinar hosted by CBP and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America.
A customs broker's vessel entry and clearance services do not constitute customs business, CBP said in a recent ruling. The activities performed by the broker, Schenker, are all either not covered by CBP regulations on customs business or are specifically exempt, CBP said in ruling HQ H260075. Because the activities do not have to be performed by a customs broker, Schenker may expand its vessel entry and clearance services to other ports without having to get additional broker district permits, CBP said in the ruling, issued in April.