The recent court decision in Trek Leather on corporate employee liability for customs violations does nothing to expand the coverage of customs penalties to employees of corporate importers of record, said the U.S. government in a brief filed April 15 opposing a Supreme Court hearing of the case. Despite consternation from the trade industry that a September 2014 decision of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will cause upheaval by subjecting import compliance professionals to “massive penalties” for negligent misstatements on entry documentation (see 1503170027), the controversial decision merely served to confirm over 40 years of Court of International Trade precedent and the plain language of 19 USC 1592, said the government’s brief.
Lawmakers introduced trade preference renewal legislation that will include the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Generalized System of Preferences and two tariff preference levels for imports from Haiti as part of a wider trade push. Those renewals and other trade bills are expected to progress alongside Trade Promotion Authority, introduced April 16, said Congressional aides. Though some details are still being worked out, a customs reauthorization bill is also expected to be part of the package, said the aides.
The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices for April 15 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
CBP's update to customs broker regulations is "still in progress," though the agency went "back and forth" on whether to rewrite the entirety of Part 111, said Sandra Bell, deputy commissioner in CBP's Office of International Trade. Bell, who spoke April 15 at the American Apparel and Footwear Association customs conference, said the agency plans to update the regulations in multiple stages and the continuing education portion should be out "shortly."
The imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties on intermodal shipping containers would lead to container shortages, longer shipping times, and increased costs, said a group of 22 industry associations in a letter to the International Trade Commission dated April 8 (here). The trade groups, including six regional customs broker associations, the American Apparel and Footwear Association, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, urged the commission to end its AD/CVD investigations on 53-foot domestic dry containers from China with a finding of no injury to domestic industry and no duties imposed.
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).