A working group consisting of food, drug and device importers, customs brokers, express carriers and government representatives presented a lengthy list of recommendations to the Food and Drug Administration on how to improve its import process, during a Oct. 7 meeting of the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC). Trade members of COAC urged FDA to improve messaging and add new data elements and functionality to the Automated Commercial Environment, as well as allow for advance data submissions and improve outreach to the trade community.
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Livingston International faces an 85 million Canadian dollar ($75.5 million) class action lawsuit in Canada for its alleged failure to pay its brokerage employees for overtime work. According to a complaint filed Oct. 1 at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the customs brokerage and freight forwarder discouraged its employees from seeking overtime compensation. Livingston also instituted policies to discourage them from making overtime claims, such as requiring advance approval for overtime even though the nature of the brokerage industry often requires its employees to work extra hours on short notice, says the complaint.
CBP will take up an Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) recommendation hoped to simplify and improve intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement for the express consignment industry, the agency said in a document posted for the Oct. 7 meeting (here). CBP will provide a "proof of concept" to the UPS Louisville Port on Oct. 6, it said. "Through this process, CBP will offer the importer and U.S. ultimate consignee an abandonment option on detention notices for shipments detained by CBP on suspicion of trademark or copyright violations," said CBP's report on the IPR working group. "This change is expected to have a significant, yet positive impact on resources, as the express environment now accounts for more than half of all intellectual property rights seizures."
CBP enforcement procedure for Importer Security Filing continues to solidify as a number of major ports have outlined their positions for dealing with ISF violators, said Craig Clark, who manages the ISF program at CBP, during an Oct. 1 webinar. CBP headquarters revised its take on ISF enforcement in May, advising the ports to focus on the more egregious ISF violators (see 14052106) and "significantly late" filing. While CBP left the definition of what is significantly late "intentionally fuzzy" to allow the ports to develop their own definition to reflect differences at the port level, it's safe to consider significantly late as "having provided that ISF at such a time that you negatively impacted CBP's ability to target that cargo," he said.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission should stick to its current system of requiring importers to provide certificates of compliance on an “on-demand” basis, industry representatives told CPSC staff at a workshop on Sept. 18. But should CPSC move forward with requiring importers to file certificates of compliance at time of entry, as proposed in May 2013 (see 13051018), the agency must ensure the program is fully integrated into existing supply chain processes and the Automated Commercial Environment, said several industry groups. CPSC must also revise its definition of importer of record to exclude customs brokers, others said. The commission should also work closely with CBP and the trade community to ensure it comes up with a rule that’s workable for both CPSC and industry, said industry representatives.
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Data broker Experian revealed a technology that links data to provide a “real-time single customer view,” to reduce issues involving digital data quality and accuracy, it said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1BbGMY5). The new technology “allows organizations to increase the precision, authenticity and sophistication of their marketing campaigns across channels and devices,” Experian said. The feature will help companies move toward the desired one-to-one marketing strategy, the company said Wednesday. Rick Erwin, president-consumer insights and targeting for Experian Marketing Services, called it a “common denominator” and “persistent link” across “all channels."
A coming Federal Maritime Commission proposed rulemaking on Ocean Transport Intermediaries (OTIs) makes a number of major revisions to a previous proposal on the subject, said FMC Commissioner William Doyle at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference. Doyle gave a detailed preview of a coming OTI proposal, which he said is expected to come out in the near future. The NCBFAA previously said it expected the FMC to pull back on its OTI rulemaking that would have meant some major new financial and licensing requirements for OTIs (see 14071616). Among the changes to the rulemaking, the FMC will not increase the bond amounts for Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers and forwarders and will not create new standards for OTI advertising, he said.
Progress was slow for customers hoping to snare an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus when they went on sale Friday in New York, we found from conversations with some of the faithful who had staked a place in line outside the Apple store on 14th Street and 9th Avenue. Store employees were limiting the number of people inside at a time, and the line outside was fairly static.