The Commerce Department will delay a requirement for aluminum import licenses under its new Aluminum Import Monitoring System until June 28, CBP said in a CSMS message sent March 29. “At the request of the Department of Commerce the [Aluminum Import Monitoring] license requirement has been delayed until June 28, 2021,” CBP said. “We have updated ACE to remove the LPC requirement.”
The Commerce Department is delaying a requirement for aluminum import licenses that had been set to take effect March 29, it said in a message on its website. The agency will soon publish a Federal Register notice again pushing back the effective date its agency’s Aluminum Import Monitoring System, which requires importers of aluminum or their customs brokers to submit information in an online portal to obtain an automatically issued license, then to submit the license number with entry summary documentation.
CBP's consideration of the value that would be added with continuing education for customs brokers requirements remains a “work in progress,” said Brenda Smith, CBP executive assistant commissioner-trade, during a March 25 call with reporters. Smith, whose last day before retirement is March 26 (see 2103170057), said CBP received “a lot of comments” and “across the board, there were a number of concerns that were raised that we are going to have to think through whether the value of requiring continuing professional education outweighs” the costs. “We've got some good insight into how we could analyze those costs and benefits,” she said.
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Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department suspended 114 customs brokers for violations of governing regulations, CustomsNews reported March 12. The 114 brokers, out of more than 400 in the Ho Chi Minh City area, committed a range of violations, most commonly failing to comply with quarterly reporting requirements, the report said. The brokers will be suspended for a maximum period of six months and can be terminated if their violations are not remedied within the six months.
CBP posted multiple documents ahead of the March 17 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
Todd Owen, former executive assistant CBP commissioner who worked in the Office of Field Operations before retiring, said during a March 3 webinar that the trade community should expect to see a lot more traditional customs work over the next few years, such as missed descriptions, undervaluation, duty evasion and import safety. Owen, who is a senior trade adviser at Diaz Trade Law, also said during the webinar that he thinks stopping goods made with forced labor is going to continue to be a priority for the Biden administration. “I don’t see this going away,” he said.
FDA’s proposed rule on traceability requirements for high-risk foods needs some reworking to “reflect the unique characteristics of the import supply chain,” the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in Feb. 22 comments to the agency. As proposed, the requirements do not account for complex import supply chains, and changes are also necessary to account for the roles of parties within that supply chain to better reflect the import process, the NCBFAA said.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said that since the International Trade Commission ruled no safeguards are necessary for blueberries, some importers think they no longer have to pay the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service blueberry fee, which funds research and promotion of U.S. blueberries. “The ITC decision not to restrict or penalize blueberry imports does not in any way change the requirement for importers to pay the blueberry fee to the USDA,” the group said in its latest members' newsletter.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet remotely on March 17, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by March 16.