Mexican, U.S. and Canadian trade officials are fully committed to developing and implementing a unified North American single window portal for the import and export of goods, but the broader trade agenda continues to take precedent over the initiative, said Mexican trade officials at a Peterson Institute of International Economics event on July 15. The U.S. is aiming to implement its single window, the Automated Commercial Environment and International Trade Data System, by 2016 and then will turn its attention to the unified portal, said CBP deputy commissioner Kevin McAleenan in June (see 14061803).
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) will not move forward on a number of the agency's proposals that would have resulted in some new financial and licensing requirements for Ocean Transport Intermediaries (OTIs), said the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. "Specifically, the FMC will not require any new license applications every two years, will not establish any summary revocation procedure for licenses, will not increase OTI bonds, will not establish any bond priority system or public filing of bond claims, will not establish regulations for advertising or the proposed rebuttable presumptions concerning the legality of actions by agents, and will not require all agency agreements to be in writing," the association said.
CBP will not consider the edges of fabric, known as selvage, when it reviews the classification of banners imported by FNS Customs Brokers for its client, Moojin Chem, the agency said in response to an internal advice request. The company requested that CBP weigh in on the classification of imports of two sizes of mesh banners, both of which have frayed edges that "are not embedded, coated or covered with plastic." The ruling, HQ H242096, is dated May 7 and was sent to the New Orleans Port Director.
Send event information for inclusion in the International Trade Today Calendar toITTNews@warren-news.com.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America warned of possible efforts to steal members' login credentials in a July 10 email. "Recently, an individual registered a site that 'spoofed' the NCBFAA site," said NCBFAA. As a result, using a search engine to find NCBFAA's site would turn up the fake address, ncbfab.com, it said. Because of the similarity to "the actual NCBFAA URL, ncbfaa.org, users may have been fooled into opening it and attempting to log onto the imitation site. The offending website has been suspended and clicking on the phony URL now returns the message 'Network Access Message: The website cannot be found.'" NCBFAA suggested that members change their passwords for the site.
CBP said the following individual customs broker licenses and any and all associated permits have been canceled due to the death of the broker:
Send event information for inclusion in the International Trade Today Calendar toITTNews@warren-news.com.
CBP provided additional guidance for industry in the event of possible port disruptions related to labor contract disputes on the west coast, in a CSMS message sent July 3 (here). The update to a guidance issued on June 24 (see 14062423) includes more details on how to handle shipments of FDA-regulated products. It also includes new information for customs brokers whose shipments have been diverted to another district where the broker is unpermitted, updates procedures for cargo diverted to another west coast port, and says part of CBP’s plan is to “provide front-of-the-line benefits and priority processing to partners in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program.”
Legislation designed to create a national hiring standard for motor carriers would give increased safeguards to brokers and forwarders that coordinate the hiring of motor vehicles for the movement of cargo, said the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) in a July 1 letter to Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., the sponsor of the legislation. The bill, H.R. 4727, was introduced in May, and has three additional cosponsors. The measure would create a safe harbor from liability for shippers, brokers, forwarders and receivers as long as they verify each motor carrier they hire is registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, has obtained the minimum insurance, and has not been given an "unsatisfactory" rating.
The U.S. principal party in interest (USPPI) may be criminally culpable for export control violations associated with “routed export transactions,” such as improper licenses or classifications, said Obama administration officials with the Departments of Homeland Security and State at a June 27 panel hosted by the Washington Foreign Law Society. “Routed export transactions” involve the foreign principal party in interest (FPPI) as the party responsible for the export. The Export Administration Regulations and the Foreign Trade Regulations have slightly different definitions for “routed export transactions,” which has caused confusion among exporters (see 14020524).