U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the fifth tranche for the fiscal year 2011 specialty sugar tariff rate quota that opened on August 24, 2011 oversubscribed at opening moment. The pro rata percentage is 88.51943% or 0.8851943.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a COAC document providing input from licensed customs brokers who do not work for brokerage companies on the professionalism component of the five areas CBP is examining for reform for its broker revision project. The brokers state that some of the issues concerning the role of the broker could be addressed by expanding the definition of "responsible supervision and control" in 19 CFR 111.19 and 111.28 to include minimum annual education requirements. However, any continuing education requirement should take into account that about half of licensed brokers do not work for a permitted Brokerage company.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS message #11-000204 announcing that updated versions of the following ACE User Guides are now available:
At the August 18, 2011 COAC1 meeting, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials provided an update on the status of various Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) projects and International Trade Data System (ITDS) initiatives that are in development.
Bruce Leeds of Braumiller Schulz LLP will be holding a one-day workshop on the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) on September 28, 2011 in Grapevine, Texas. The workshop will provide a basic overview of the ITAR provisions. Topics to be covered include the DDTC, articles and technical data subject to the ITAR, types of licenses for unclassified articles, license agreements, license exemptions, sanctions and prohibitions, penalties, and more. Participants will receive Certified Export Specialist (CES) credits from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) for attending this course. The registration fee is $150. Online registration is available here.
Canada Border Services Agency announced that Vancouver resident Colin Li Hsin Cheng has received an 18 month conditional sentence in the British Columbia Supreme Court after pleading guilty to four criminal customs-related charges stemming from cigarette smuggling and fraudulently posing as a customs broker. During the sentencing on August 18, 2011, Mr. Cheng was also ordered to pay $10,714.74 in restitution to his fraud victims.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection states that on August 27, 2011, it deployed the code for new capabilities related to rail and sea manifest (M1). There will be no operational use of the new M1 system until it is deemed fully operational and stable. At that time, the agency will notify trade partners that have completed their certification and testing that they can begin transmitting to ACE. CBP is also set to deploy its new ACE Portal capabilities, which are slated to be available to the trade on August 29 and September 6, in a two-phased approach.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is advising the trade of future changes to the ABI Harmonized Tariff Extract reference file and to the ABI HTS Query transaction records to display new output records that will identify tariff numbers that have PGA (Participating Government Agency) indicators associated with the tariff number. CBP is also providing the formats for the new record identifiers, for trade programming purposes.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a press release on CBP Commissioner Bersin's opening of the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee’s (COAC) second meeting held in Long Beach, CA on August 18, 2011. At the meeting, Commissioner Bersin emphasized that partnerships with other countries, other governmental agencies (OGAs), and the trade community are essential for further success in moving forward. Meeting participants also discussed the management by account pilot programs, the Center of Excellence and Expertise (CEE) and Account Executive, which will likely become part of the CEE on October 1. Other topics on the agenda included simplified entry and processing, the role of the broker revision project, and updates on the progress of work being done on the land border security initiatives, air cargo security, Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), etc.
At the August 18, 2011 COAC meeting, CBP officials and COAC members provided an update of their work on CBP’s broker revision project, which could include more robust broker vetting of importers and restricting the off-shoring of customs business.