CBP should take a new look at its penalty mitigation guidelines, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) recommended during its April 27 meeting. A more "uniform" application of mitigation policies, which were last updated in 2004, is needed "in light of technology advances, trusted trader programs, and inter-agency enforcement partnerships," the COAC Trade Enforcement and Revenue Collection subcommittee said. "Particularly in cases of less egregious violations, CBP should enforce and mitigate on more of an account-based, as opposed to transactional approach," it said.
Multiple members of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) voted against two recommendations related to a customs broker regulations update. The two controversial recommendations involved recordkeeping and where brokers may conduct customs business. Those recommendations were ultimately approved on April 27 by the full COAC alongside more than 30 recommendations produced by the broker regulations working group (see 1604250011). Most COAC recommendations are approved unanimously.
Mohawk Global Trade Advisors hired Adrienne Graddy as a senior advisor, the company said in a news release (here). Graddy, a licensed customs broker, previously worked in the "regulatory divisions at several of Chicago's most prominent businesses," said Mohawk.
Congress should move fast to pass miscellaneous tariff bill process legislation, trade groups and companies said in a April 20 letter to lawmakers (here). "Action on a new MTB process is long overdue," said Walmart, DuPont, several regional customs broker groups and others in the letter. "To boost the competitiveness of our industries and correct longstanding distortions in the U.S. tariff code, we strongly urge Congress to work expeditiously and jointly to pass a new MTB process that will eliminate distortions in the U.S. tariff code that undermine the competitiveness and job growth of our industries." The House is scheduled to vote on an MTB process reform bill on April 27 (see 1604210038).
CBP posted its agenda and some other agency documents for the upcoming Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) meeting on April 27. Among the posted items are a detailed look at planned recommendations for changes to customs broker regulations (here). The document includes a list of the proposed changes with any new or deleted language highlighted some brief descriptions of the logic behind the proposals. A member of the COAC broker regulations working group recently previewed many of the recommendations (see 1604220023). The agenda is (here).
Modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, requiring importers to issue more precise product declarations, import tariffs, and undercover investigations could complicate ISIS’ illicit trade of cultural antiquities, which some Iraqi officials estimate to be valued at $100 million overall, participants of an April 19 hearing of the House Financial Services Task Force to Investigate Terror Financing said. ISIS is believed to be smuggling stolen historical artifacts through routes spanning through Lebanon, Greece, and Bulgaria, and a large portion of the goods are thought to enter the U.S., as this country comprises 43 percent of the world’s art market, DePaul University law professor and State Department Cultural Property Advisory Committee member Patty Gerstenblith said during the hearing. That is nearly double the second-place United Kingdom. Terrorism sanctions on bootleggers and dealers would be a logical first step to stemming the flow of the snatched goods, as there is currently no general legal principle governing these illicit transports, Gerstenblith said.
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Big changes are on the way for protest filing and reconciliation as part of the deployment of ACE post-summary capabilities currently set for October, said Celeste Catano of software developer Kewill during the annual conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America on April 19. Alongside new ACE systems for liquidation and drawback, changes to how protests are filed will allow lawyers to submit and keep track of protests, while increased automation of the reconciliation process will make life easier for brokers in several ways, said Catano.
TUCSON, Ariz. -- The head of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee broker regulations working group previewed more than 30 recommendations that are set to be considered at the April 27 COAC meeting. Cindy Allen, the leader of the working group and CEO of Trade Force Multiplier, discussed the recommendations during a panel at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference on April 20. Already OK'd by the Trade Modernization subcommittee, the recommendations must still be approved by the full COAC before they are finalized and given to CBP, she said. As a result, there's a chance that some of the language could still change, Allen said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Import filers could be in for an eventful summer, with ACE system slowdowns and CBP communication problems compounding problems related to an already crowded slate of ACE deadlines, said several software developers and a customs broker during the annual conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America on April 19. After a slow implementation process over nearly a decade and a relatively successful transition for entry summary on March 31 (see 1604050034), the pace is set to increase markedly as 19 PGAs join the two already online at as yet undetermined dates.