Customs broker notifications and requested documents that were previously sent to CBP headquarters should go instead to the email address for CBP's Broker Management Branch, the agency said in a CSMS message. That email address is brokermanagement@cbp.dhs.gov. “Documents do not need to be both emailed and mailed, as the notification will be received through the Broker Management Branch inbox,” it said. Among documents that should be emailed are national permit applications, exam appeals, license application appeals, license name change requests, notice by license qualifier of termination and changes in brokerage ownership, CBP said. “All documents required by licensing and permitting District offices are still to be sent to those offices via the means prescribed by those locations.”
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America recently published two export compliance documents to help guide freight forwarders involved in exporting, the group said in a Jan. 11 email to industry. The U.S. Principal Party in Interest export responsibility information sheet provides guidance on the responsibilities of an export customer in an export transaction, and the Shipper’s Letter of Instruction model is intended to help forwarders as they gather required export control information and create a company-specific SLI.
On the day that additional 25% tariffs were scheduled to go into effect on French handbags and cosmetics, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and CBP made no public statement about the tariffs' fate, leaving importers in the dark about what they should do.
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CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP scheduled its semiannual customs broker license exams for 2021 to be administered on Wednesday, April 21, and Thursday, Oct. 21, the agency said in a notice. The exams are typically given on the fourth Wednesday in April and October. “Due to the limited availability of testing sites caused by state and local restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, CBP has changed the regularly scheduled dates of the examination,” the agency said.
DHL and Comstock & Theakston would like to see CBP reduce the number of hours it would require as a part of any continuing education requirements for customs brokers, the companies said in comments to the agency. The comments were in response to CBP's advance notice of proposed rulemaking that asked about whether requiring 40 hours of education over three years seems appropriate (see 2010270038). The companies also would like to see internal training apply to any required continuing education.
A Commerce Department license is required for prefabricated pipe spools that include components that would require such a license when imported separately, CBP said in a Dec. 28 CSMS message. “Where the [Harmonized Tariff Schedule] classification requires a license under the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) Program, a license is required for each entry summary line reporting that HTS classification,” CBP said. “Where the license is required but not reported for an entry summary line for an HTS, ACE will reject the entry filing. Accordingly, importers must obtain from Commerce, and report at the time of entry summary filing, a steel import license number for every entry summary line of a pipe spool where the HTS requires a steel import license.”
New licensing requirements for aluminum products are now set to begin Jan. 25, 2021, under a Commerce Department final rule creating a new Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System. Similar to the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System in place since 2005, the new scheme requires importers of aluminum or their customs brokers to submit information in an online portal to obtain an automatically issued license, then submit the license number with entry summary documentation.