The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina on March 31 denied a bid from the owners of several Land Rovers to save their vehicles from forfeiture for import violations. CBP had seized the Land Rovers after finding their entry documentation falsely claimed the vehicles were old enough to qualify for exemptions from Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation requirements. The owners of the vehicles argued that the forfeiture should not proceed because some of the vehicles are now old enough for the exemption. However, the court found that the customs law on forfeiture “does not accommodate vehicles that later ‘come into compliance’ due the passage of time.”
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 30 - April 3 in case they were missed.
CBP's slowness to write policies for automation as the agency moves quickly to deploy new capabilities is one area of concern ahead of the coming Automation Commercial Environment deadlines, said Amy Magnus, A.N. Deringer's director of customs affairs and compliance. Magnus, who was recently chosen to be on the next CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations, discussed ACE on a March 31 panel at the Northeast Trade and Transportation conference hosted by the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade in Newport, R.I. "With automation, there are changes in processes," she said. "With changes in processes, there really should be updated policies to go along with it. And updated policies in written form so that we aren't guessing, so everybody knows what the rules are." While CBP should be applauded for moving quickly on the agile deployment of ACE "they sometimes are not as quick to roll out written policies and procedures around that automation," she said.
Even with the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s mooted certificate registry approach, the electronic filing of certificates of compliance at entry will create some hurdles that will have to be overcome, according to a document recently released by an Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) work group focused on the issue (here). The current process is “all paper,” and translating that paper to data is going to be a “heavy lift,” said the summary of the work group’s discussions. Electronic filing at entry will also require the creation of new processes for the broker and importer to exchange data so the broker can file with CBP, it said.
The Food and Drug Administration issued an order barring a honey broker from importing food into the U.S. for four years, following the Texas man’s conviction for smuggling transshipped Chinese honey (here). Jun Yang owned and ran National Honey, Inc., which did business as National Commodities Company, acting as the middleman between foreign honey suppliers and U.S. customers. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2013 for falsely declaring honey he sourced from China was actually imported from Malaysia and India in an effort to evade antidumping duties (see 13111809).
The Agricultural Marketing Service is amending its regulations to reflect electronic filing procedures currently in use for certifications that fruits, vegetables and specialty crops are exempt from marketing order grade, size, quality and maturity requirements, in an interim final rule that takes effect March 30 (here). The agency is also removing outdated language on grade exemption certifications for dates and raisins. AMS says the regulatory changes will support implementation of the International Trade Data System by allowing for filing of exemption certificates through the Automated Commercial Environment. Comments on the interim final rule are due May 26.
A new Consumer Product Safety Commission trusted trader program could be in the offing as the agency moves cautiously toward electronic filing of certificates of compliance, said CPSC Commissioner Joseph Mohorovic during a March 19 meeting with the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. However, any CPSC trusted trader program must overcome the familiar hurdle of providing enough benefits to importers, said NCBFAA representatives at the meeting.
Revenue from customs brokerage services at Expeditors International rose 8 percent in 2014 over the previous year to over $1.6 billion due to “increased volumes from existing and new customers,” according to the company’s annual 10-K report recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (here). However, the company only saw a 4 percent increase in net revenue from customs brokerage services due to a 12 percent increase in brokerage-related expenses in 2014, it said.
CBP should move to update the Business Rules document on Automated Commercial Environment Summary soon, National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America leaders recently told Brenda Smith, CBP assistant commissioner. "Although there is a Business Rules Document on ACE Summary, there is still some effort needed to update this publication," said the trade group's president, Geoffrey Powell, on the NCBFAA site (here). "There is an urgent need for the Business Rules document for Cargo Release as soon as possible, as opposed to April/May timeframe," he said. The document is important for training the industry and CBP, said Powell. "Many of our members rely heavily on the ACE Summary Business Rules Document daily when communicating with CBP, so there is mutual understanding of the issue at hand and how it needs to be addressed."
A recent court decision holding the owner of apparel importer Trek Leather responsible for his company’s negligent omissions on entry documentation would subject import compliance managers to “massive penalties,” casting the entire importing industry into upheaval, said the American Association of Exporters and Importers in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court. The amicus brief, filed on March 16 by John Peterson of Neville Peterson on behalf of AAEI, argues that the Supreme Court should hear the case and overturn the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s ruling.