The Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a notice announcing the initiation of and requesting comments on a pilot program1 to demonstrate the ability of Mexico-based motor carriers to operate safely in the U.S. beyond the commercial zones along the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted Amendment 5 (dated April 2007) to the Customs Automated Manifest Interface Requirements (CAMIR)-Intermodal. According to CBP, the changes in Amendment 5 are as follows:
The Drug Enforcement Administration has issued an interim final rule, effective May 9, 2007, to require additional reporting for import, export, and international transactions involving all List I and List II chemicals, and to implement section 716 of the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 (CMEA).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted notice on its Web site notifying all individuals who took the April 2, 2007 Customs Broker License Exam that due to extenuating circumstances the exams have not yet been scored. CBP states that it is anticipated that the exam will be scored by May 15, 2007. According to CBP, once the results are received by CBP, the notification process will be expedited. (CBP notice, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/broker_management/broker_exam/.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message announcing new procedures for requesting duty-free certificates from the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) for commercial shipments classified in Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 9808.00.301.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued an interim rule, effective February 27, 2007, which adds a new Part 208 to 19 CFR to provide for ITC investigations, determinations, reports, and petitions from interested parties, regarding "abundant supply" fabric/yarn determinations, as required by recent amendments to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
The Journal of Commerce reports that the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) and the Airforwarders Association recently announced a "Strategic Alliance for Freight Forwarder Endeavors," a joint lobbying effort to work on issues facing forwarders, such as inspection of all air cargo on passenger planes, etc. (JoC dated 04/11/07, www.joc.com.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice announcing that the fourth group of land border ports to become mandatory for the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) electronic manifest: Truck (e-Manifest: Truck1) for advance cargo information purposes will be those in Vermont and New Hampshire as well as the remaining land border ports in North Dakota - St. John, Fortuna, Ambrose, Carbury, Noonan, Dunseith, Sherwood, Antler, Northgate, Westhope, and Portal, effective July 12, 2007.
In December 2006, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued its minimum-security criteria for Customs brokers already enrolled in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program and those Customs brokers wishing to join. At the time, CBP also issued its implementation plan for the new criteria.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a notice announcing that it has completed the necessary programming changes for automated filing through the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) of Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) Act of 2006 entries. CBP states that all claims for preferential tariff treatment under the Haitian HOPE Act may be filed via an ABI entry. For shipments of apparel, the Haitian HOPE Act visa number should be reported in the proper format in the visa field.