International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week charged a Montana resident and his two companies with violating U.S. export controls after BIS said he tried to ship controlled items knowing they would be used in Iran. Kenneth Scott and his companies, Scott Communication and Mission Communications, also made false or misleading statements to agents, failed to file Electronic Export Information and didn’t maintain the required export records, BIS said.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet remotely June 29, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by June 24.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet remotely June 29, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by June 24.
The Court of International Trade in a June 6 opinion dismissed test taker Byungmin Chae's lawsuit contesting five questions on the customs broker license exam. Judge Timothy Reif said CBP was right to dismiss Chae's appeal of four of the questions but that the agency wrongly denied the test taker's appeal for the fifth question. The reversal of one question wasn't enough to for a passing grade for Chae, who was two questions shy of the 75% threshold needed to pass the test.
The Court of International Trade in a June 6 opinion dismissed test taker Byungmin Chae's lawsuit contesting five questions on the customs broker license exam. Judge Timothy Reif said CBP was right to dismiss Chae's appeal of four of the questions but that the agency wrongly denied the test taker's appeal for the fifth question. The reversal of one question wasn't enough to for a passing grade for Chae, who was two questions shy of the 75% threshold needed to pass the test.
The Court of International Trade in a June 6 opinion dismissed customs broker license exam test taker Byungmin Chae's case contesting five questions on his broker exam. Judge Timothy Reif said that CBP was right to dismiss Chae's appeal for four of the contested questions but that the agency was wrong to dismiss the fifth appeal. However, the court's move to grant credit on this one question was not enough to get Chae over the 75% threshold needed to pass the test.
A panel of industry, trade group representatives and a customs broker disagreed on the proper approach to changing domestic de minimis policy, or even if it should be changed, but agreed that it's perverse that warehouses in Canada and Mexico are serving as way stations for small packages destined for U.S. consumers.
The 11 withhold release orders currently in place that involve companies or products from the Xinjiang region in China will become subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act as of June 21, said Elva Muneton, CBP acting executive director for the UFLPA Implementation Task Force, while speaking to a Los Angeles Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association webinar June 2. That means goods subject to those WROs that are detained by CBP as of June 21 will require clear and convincing evidence that forced labor wasn't involved to be allowed to enter the U.S, she said. Before June 21, those detained goods would continue through the WRO process, Muneton said.
An aggressive timeline that aims to file a conference report by June 21 for the House and Senate China packages has lobbyists speculating that none of the proposals in the trade titles will be in the final bill because the two chambers are too far apart. The two chambers have relatively similar renewals of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and a big difference in their renewals of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. Each chamber has proposals the other doesn't, such as directing the administration to reopen Section 301 exclusions (Senate only); changing antidumping and countervailing duty laws (House only); removing China's eligibility for de minimis benefits (House only); and renewing and expanding Trade Adjustment Assistance (House only).