International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 15-19 in case they were missed.
CBP will soon publish an interim final rule amending its regulations to provide for changes coming to liquidation processes when liquidation is deployed to ACE on Oct. 1, a CBP import specialist said during a webinar Aug. 17. Beginning Oct. 1, CBP will start processing liquidations weekly every Friday, and posting notices of the liquidations electronically to a searchable database on the CBP website. The electronic bulletin notices will replace manual postings at the customs house as legal notice for importers, the import specialist said.
A Chicago-based customs broker faces a lawsuit in federal court filed by a client seeking to recover millions of dollars in antidumping and countervailing duties that the client claims should have been refunded by the broker. Union Pacific filed suit in Northern Illinois U.S. District Court on Aug. 15, alleging Pactrans failed to pass along $5.8 million in AD/CV duty refunds paid by CBP after an AD/CV duty investigation was terminated with no duties imposed. Union Pacific also claims Pactrans failed to pay two months’ worth of AD/CV duties, costing it thousands of dollars more in penalties.
The American Association of Exporters and Importers is seeking an extension of the deadline for comments on the Food and Drug Administration’s ACE filing procedures, it said in a letter to the agency dated Aug. 9 (here). Commending FDA for issuing a proposed rule June 30 that outlines the agency’s newly mandatory ACE requirements (see 1606300020), AAEI nonetheless said the trade community needs more time to respond. Importers are still managing the impact of FDA’s ACE deadline of June 15 and CBP’s July 23 deadline for quota, and haven’t had the time to develop complete responses to FDA’s notice, it said. Industry also needs more time to discuss new data elements required by FDA with service providers like customs brokers and express carriers, the letter said. AAEI requested another 60 days to respond to FDA’s proposed rule. Comments are currently due Aug. 30.
Over 100 trade organizations doubled down on a calls for the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to start early discussions on either a contract extension or a new West Coast ports contract, as the current one is set to expire in 2019. In a letter to PMA and ILWU (here), the groups say a contract extension is vital to ensure stability and predictability at West Coast ports, and call for both parties to make sure that negotiations don’t spur additional port disruptions, advocating the maintenance of arbitration mechanisms in the existing contract throughout negotiations, even if the current contract expires before reaching a new deal. “We fully believe that agreeing early to a contract extension or a new long-term contract will provide the stability and predictability that is needed for global competitiveness that will benefit all stakeholders (labor, terminal operators, cargo owners, etc.) who rely on West Coast ports,” said the groups, which include the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, the American Association of Exporters and Importers, and the American Apparel & Footwear Association. A similar industry coalition sent a letter to PMA and ILWU in March also calling for an early start to West Coast port contract negotiations (see 1603160031).
More than 100 industry organizations, ranging from broker associations to textile manufacturers, directly appealed to President Barack Obama to reconsider his decision to defer approval of duty benefits for 27 travel goods imported from many countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (here). In a letter signed by groups including the Express Association of America, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association and the Pacific Coast Council of Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders, companies and industry associations called on Obama to decide to apply duty-free approvals for the goods “definitely no later” than Oct. 1, to boost development before GSP expires at the end of 2017. “Deferring a decision to make eligible all GSP countries for travel goods, which include backpacks, purses, suitcases, and laptop cases, creates business uncertainty and delays the investment that will create and support jobs in developing countries as well as jobs here at home," the letter said.
CBP is correcting a notice it issued on customs broker licenses revoked for failure to file the 2015 triennial status report and pay the applicable fee (here). The correction adds nine brokers to the list of licenses revoked, and removes three that were erroneously listed. CBP’s January notice revoked hundreds of licenses (see 1601050010).
U.S. shippers and forwarders are seizing new opportunities created through recently loosened trade restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba, yet U.S. export activities frequently fall short of firms’ expectations as companies often encounter uncertain and changeable terms of bilateral engagement. In addition to navigating incongruous trade regulations across both countries, firms involved in exporting to Cuba must still avoid violating the U.S. trade embargo while cultivating Cuban buyers who commonly have spotty phone and internet access, according to several private sector officials directly engaged in U.S.-Cuba trade regulations.
ACE filers continue to face downtime and slowdown issues worse than those encountered in the legacy Automated Commercial System, and several functionalities essential to the trade community are still unavailable, including some that were available in the legacy system before it was mostly shut down July 23, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a position paper (here). “Much remains to be done” before the implementation of ACE can be declared a success, with performance of some aspects of the new electronic filing regime still lagging behind that of the ACS, it said.
The National Marine Fisheries Service issued a final rule (here) that will consolidate existing import, export and re-export permits for filing in CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment. Under the new regulations, currently separate permits and documentation for the Antarctic Marine Living Resources (AMLR) and the Highly Migratory Species International Trade Permit (HMS ITP) programs must be filed in ACE under a single International Fisheries Trade Permit (IFTP), via both data elements and scanned images. Non-resident importers will have to go through a registered agent residing in the U.S. to obtain an IFTP. NMFS is also finalizing new permit requirements for seafood products regulated under the Tuna Tracking and Verification Program (TTVP), also under the consolidated IFTP procedures. The final rule takes effect Sept. 20.