The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 9-15:
CBP addressed several concerns recently raised by importers and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America about coming rules on imports made by forced or child labor (see 1605090007). There are several paths for importers to defend allegations importing goods subject to withhold release orders, said a CBP spokeswoman in an email. The agency also responded to questions about its use of risk-based targeting for WROs and training for CBP officers at the ports.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 9-13 in case they were missed.
The recently increased $800 de minimis limit is causing a shift in business practices for brokers and importers, and raising questions and concerns over a growing number of low value shipments, said customs brokers and importers in recent interviews. Some in the trade community still await guidance on how to proceed with low-value shipments regulated by agencies other than CBP. There is also some concern the higher limit could cause more importers to break up their shipments to avoid the entry process and associated duties, customs brokers said.
CBP’s June 15 mandatory use date for filing electronic entries and entry summaries in ACE is tight, leaving little time to implement the latest FDA changes to its ACE programming and smooth out remaining issues, said customs brokers and software developers shortly after the agency announced the deadline. As detailed in a Federal Register notice (here), CBP will as of June 15 require filing in ACE of FDA entries and entry summaries under entry types 01, 03, 06, 11, 23, 51 and 52, the Automated Commercial System “will no longer be a CBP-authorized [electronic system] for purposes of processing these electronic filings,” said the agency. Though CBP said it will monitor implementation, CBP should ease in enforcement to give the trade community time to adjust, said one broker.
The Census Bureau should not create a new “used electronics indicator” data element in the Automated Export System, said the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America in comments on the agency’s recent proposed rule (here). Doing so would place on forwarders “the burden of explaining this new requirement to the exporting community as well as seeking out and collecting additional information related to the nature of the product being exported,” said the NCBFAA. Forwarders are “not well equipped” to ascertain “whether the goods being exported are new or used" or "indeed whether goods that have never been used” fall under that definition because they have been resold, it said. Census proposed adding the new data element, and make other changes to the Foreign Trade Regulations, in a notice issued March 9 (see 1603080033).
The U.S. government is seeking over $3 million in penalties from a customs broker it says profited by underpaying duties owed by clients. In a complaint filed May 9 at the Court of International Trade, the government said Kenneth H. Chew collected the full amount of duties owed on entries he filed on behalf of his clients, but actually paid lower amounts of duties to CBP by falsifying entry documentation and pocketed the difference.
A "broad array" of importers are "greatly concerned" with a CBP rulemaking that will revise the agency's regulations on imports made by forced or child labor, said the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America in an email to members. The rule changes are a result of the customs reauthorization law which repealed the "consumptive demand" exemption to the ban on imported products made by forced labor (see 1603010043). "There are a great number of unanswered questions about how the forced-labor provisions will now be enforced," said the NCBFAA. Among the open issues are how an importer will defend an allegation and CBP's plans for targeting, the trade group said. CBP didn't comment, but recently released a set of frequently asked questions on the issue (see 1604220017). CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske is scheduled to testify for the Senate Finance Committee about customs reauthorization implementation on May 11.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service began a "transitional period" during which FSIS is selecting a "subset of imported shipments of Siluriformes fish and fish products for reinspection, which will include testing for species, chemical residues, and Salmonella," said the agency in a CBP CSMS message (here). The transitional period, April 15 through Sept. 1, 2017, is meant "to ensure that importers, customs brokers, and other stakeholders have ample time to prepare and comply with FSIS’s mandatory reinspection requirements," said FSIS. Under the agency’s final rule (see 1511270024), which takes full effect Sept. 1, 2017 (see 1512020024), FSIS is assuming regulatory responsibilities for catfish and other siluriformes from the Food and Drug Administration. "For rail, truck, and air shipments, FSIS may target a shipment of interest by the time of arrival or CBP release, whichever is later," it said. "For ocean shipments, a decision will be made within 48 hours from the time of entry filing."
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association recently posted to its website presentations from its annual conference held April 18-20 in Tucson, Ariz. The presentations (here) cover the following topics: