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Livingston International announced it has acquired New York-based FPA Customs Brokers, in a press release dated Aug. 12. The acquisition expands Livingston’s footprint in New York and Los Angeles, and “bolsters Livingston’s air/sea customs brokerage operations,” it said.
CBP's efforts to update an agency publication outlining the means to verify a first sale valuation equates to legal impropriety by CBP, said law firm Grunfeld Desiderio in comments to the agency on the proposed changes. "A major rule change cannot be effected through informal trade outreach and a revision to an Informed Compliance Publication," it said. The draft change to the Informed Compliance Publication (ICP) includes a controversial list of documents the agency said it might request from industry to verify the use of first sale pricing (see 14071025)
Logistics industry associations continued to criticize a definition in the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed food transport regulations that they say could subject logistics providers to onerous requirements even though they are not in a position to comply. Under the agency’s February proposed rule on sanitary transportation of food (see 14020301), the "shipper" responsible for setting food safety procedures for a given shipment would be defined as the “person who initiates a shipment of food by motor vehicle or rail vehicle.” In recently submitted comments on the proposed rule, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA) say that definition would make logistics providers responsible for providing information they are in no position to know, like packaging and temperature requirements.
A proposal by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to prohibit the coercion of drivers to violate trucking rules would “open a Pandora's box of unintended consequences” for customs brokers and forwarders, said the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America in comments dated Aug. 7. Because refusing drivers that are about to violate hours of service limits could be considered coercion under the proposal, the end result would be cargo sitting at docks because the driver wouldn’t be able to move it and the arranger of transportation wouldn’t be able to call the trucking company to get a new driver, said NCBFAA.
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The Eastern New York U.S. District Court on July 31 dismissed a lawsuit brought by a New England furniture store against its customs broker for gross negligence when filing entry documentation. Cardi’s Furniture said FedEx Trade Networks ignored its instructions to list a furniture wholesaler as importer of record on an entry. FedEx countered that Cardi’s was only trying to evade antidumping duties on wooden bedroom furniture from China. The court found that it didn’t have to decide, because FedEx was protected by a contract clause that limited entry-related lawsuits to 75 days after the date of liquidation.
The joint CBP and industry working group effort to improve entry summary decided on some initial steps during the group's first meeting July 15-17, according to a description of the first session posted by the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA). The group, known as the Simplified Summary Working Group, "was established to further improve the Entry Summary process and policies to improve usability and efficiency by modernizing the post- release processes to align with current business practices or the trade community," it said.
Importers markedly improved the accuracy and timeliness of Importer Security Filing submissions in the past year, according to the “Import Operations and Compliance Benchmark Study” published in July by American Shipper magazine and BPE Global. About 75% of the 250 importers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) surveyed now say that 95-100% of their ISF declarations are accurate (up from about 65% in 2013), and about the same proportion also say their ISF declarations are timely. CBP began ISF enforcement last year. The survey also says importers are automating more compliance and operations processes, and have increased use of duty avoidance programs by about 5%.
CBP Los Angeles will hold a seminar on "Steel Identification, Classification and Trade Law" on Sept.16-17, it said in a public bulletin. The seminar, which will include presentations from technical, commercial and legal experts from the industry, is meant to "enhance the knowledge level of steel importations" for the trade and customs brokers, it said. Registration is required by Aug. 25. The seminar will be at the Port of Los Angeles, 425 South Palos Verdes St., San Pedro, Calif.