CBP will begin to allow importers to certify Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Cargo Release pilot data elements through the transmission of the ACE Entry Summary, the agency said in a notice. The agency also added three new data elements that will be required in order to certify from ACE Entry Summary.
A recently started campaign is working to push back against momentum for changes at CBP that could lessen the need for individually licensed customs brokers. The campaign, called "See a Broker, Save a Broker," was started in response to coming capabilities within CBP's Automated Commercial Environment that would allow for expanded Remote Location Filing (RLF), potentially meaning a single broker's license is all that would be necessary for importers across the country. "The national permit coupled with full blown RLF not only threatens our profession through lost jobs and core missions to protect the revenue and borders by reducing the ranks currently enlisted in this shared responsibility, it also devalues the individual license holder through declining demand," the campaign said.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's board of directors recently approved 16 new members, the NCBFAA said in a notice on its website. New members include:
Coming regulatory changes at CBP will soon make the notion of district permits "a wholly irrelevant artifact," the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) said on its website. The NCBFAA recently made a point to make clear to its members that revisions to the broker permitting structure were in the works and industry engagement would be important (see 14042116) "While there appears to be strong sentiment to keep the current [district permitting system], that really is not an option," the group said.
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Despite a previous port classification decision and 81 subsequent liquidated entries claiming preferential treatment under that classification, the entries of a single importer through a single port is not enough to create an "established and uniform practice," CBP said in ruling HQ H15556. The ruling, dated Feb. 3, addressed an internal advice request on whether embroidered fabric produced in Honduras using originating embroidery yarns and batiste fabric from China origin qualify for preferential tariff treatment as an originating good under the Dominican Republic -- Central America -- U.S. Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The agency also considered whether a uniform practice had been established.
Correction: OtterBox denies the allegations in a customs broker's whistleblower lawsuit it recently settled for $4.3 million, and did not admit to the violations under the settlement (see 14042222). "OtterBox denies the contentions of the qui tam complaint filed in 2011 by former employee Bonnie Jimenez and asserts that at no time has the company knowingly underpaid customs duties," said an OtterBox spokesman. "As the government acknowledges, this matter was based solely on allegations and the case was settled with no admission of liability."
Cellphone case maker OtterBox paid $4.3 million to settle a whistleblower suit brought by a customs broker and former employee that alleged the company failed to account for the value of assists when it paid customs duties, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado on April 21. The broker, Bonnie Jimenez, alleged that her former employer knowingly disregarded the value of engineering work and molds on entry documentation it submitted between 2006 and 2011. The government agreed, and decided to intervene on her behalf. Jimenez will receive $830,000 out of the settlement for her trouble. OtterBox did not admit guilt as part of the settlement, and a company spokesman later denied the charges in the complaint.
The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America posted some of the presentations given during the group's annual conference April. 7-10. The presentations include:
"Would it be possible to get Professor Sweeney?” asked a panelist at the White House’s March 17 workshop on big data at New York University (WID March 19 p2). An audience member had just asked a question about how individuals -- both professional and nefarious -- could access encrypted data. The panel turned to recently-appointed FTC Chief Technologist Latanya Sweeney, data anonymity researcher on leave from Harvard University, who was merely an observing audience member. “I don’t want to put her on the spot,” said the panelist, Microsoft Principal Researcher Kate Crawford. “But Latanya Sweeney has written many papers on precisely how people get access to big data."