U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which began processing GSP duty refunds in early December for entries made during the period of January 1, 2011 through November 4, 2011, now states that refunds have been issued for all automatic refund requests (i.e., for entries that were filed duty-paid via ABI with the SPI "A"), except for ones that "failed" this refund process, which are being sent to the ports where entry was made to be manually processed. The target date for CBP completing the refund process for the SPI "A" failed entries is the end of February 2012.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted presentation slides on its "Trade Transformation" initiatives for 21st century trade. Within the slides, CBP states that it seeks to improve cargo security while increasing trade competitiveness by fully aggregating risk management. This will be accomplished by leveraging end-to-end visibility of accounts that captures a holistic view of the global supply chain. CBP also outlines how it will accomplish this through its BEST goals: (1) Better Targeting; (2) Expedite Trade; (4) Segment Risk; (5) and Transaction Savings and through its various trade initiatives. These initiatives include Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS), Importer Security Filing (ISF), Simplified Entry/summary, ACE, Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEE), and the role of the broker. CBP also maps out the supply chain for each mode of transportation and ACE.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Information and Technology has posted an updated list of companies/persons offering data processing services to the trade community for the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) as of January 12, 2012.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that the 2012 annual user fee of $138 for each customs broker permit and national permit held by an individual, partnership, association, or corporation is due by January 20, 2012.
The Federal Maritime Commission has issued a proposed rule that would increase the amount of bond coverage required in its optional China Bond Rider for Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carriers so that total NVOCC financial responsibility would equal 800,000 Chinese Renminbi (RMB) under current exchange rates. The proposed rule would also provide a method for NVOCCs to demonstrate financial responsibility by aggregating the total coverage of a bond and all of its riders. Comments are due by March 12, 2012.
Trade and other sources state that U.S. Customs and Border Protection could maintain its momentum in the development of the Automated Commercial Environment, even without a Presidential appointee as Commissioner.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have issued statistics on their fiscal year 2011 intellectual property rights seizures. The statistics show that while the number of seized counterfeit goods has increased since FY 2010, their value has dropped due to an increased number of low-value seizures, including more seizures of express courier and consolidated shipments. The report also shows that FY 2011 is the first time since FY 2005 that footwear was not the top commodity seized and the first time handbags/wallets/backpacks were not on the "Top Commodities Seized" list.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a 2009 Great Idea Form (GIF) on a request from the trade community for the ability of Customs brokers to upload employee information from an Excel spreadsheet to the ACE Portal to meet the 19 CFR Part 111 requirement to provide CBP with a list of broker employees. The GIF notes that the functionality delivered with ESAR A1 does not allow the mid to large size broker to take advantage of the ACE Portal for this requirement.
A federal judge in Denver postponed for the second time the trial of two Executive Recycling officials charged with dumping e-waste illegally overseas. The officials, Executive Recycling CEO Brandon Richter and Vice President of Operations Tor Olson, pocketed millions of dollars by shipping tons of CRTs to unscrupulous brokers in Hong Kong in violation of EPA rules, an indictment charged (CED Sept 20 p5). Executive Recycling was the recycler featured in a 2008 60 Minutes expose on e-waste dumping in developing countries.