A group of trade associations on Oct. 10 urged the Environmental Protection Agency to resume review of documents that accompany pesticide shipments, in a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy dated Oct. 10. Pesticide shipments are currently unable to clear U.S. customs, because the EPA regional staff that normally reviews notices of action have been furloughed during the federal government shutdown (see 13100229 and 13101002). The letter from 17 trade associations, including the American Association of Exporters and Importers, the American Association of Port Authorities, CropLife America and the National Association of Manufacturers, said the EPA employees responsible for review of notices of action should be deemed essential and resume work during the shutdown.
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Ten days into the federal government shutdown, many importers and exporters are feeling some impact from agency furloughs. Negative effects are generally confined to regulatory actions that don’t directly affect routine customs clearance, industry officials said, like Food and Drug Administration sampling and Department of Agriculture cheese import licenses. Some products are presenting more problems than others. Importation of pesticides has been impossible since the shutdown began and the Environmental Protection Agency largely went offline, officials from that industry said. Steel imports faced a similar problem initially due to furloughs at the Commerce Department, but the product is now coming in after a partial resolution was offered by the agency, one shipper told us.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration interpretation of the word "transaction" will largely determine to what extent customs brokers would be exempt from financial and licensing requirements of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), said Avalon Risk Management in a video outlining the exemptions to the law. The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America previously interpreted the bill's language to mean most work done by customs brokers is exempt from the new bonding requirements of MAP-21 (see 12070325), though the regulatory treatment of customs brokers seems to be an open question.
CBP's Los Angeles/Long Beach office started to use added enforcement measures to deal with non-compliance with Importer Security Filing (ISF) requirements, said a notice sent by the L.A. Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association (LACBFFA). CBP will begin using holds on consolidated shipments for which there is no ISF on file 48 hours prior to the arrival, effective Oct. 7, said the LACBFFA notice. The LACBFFA said CBP's L.A. Director of Field Operations Todd Owen described the plans during a recent conference call with several trade associations in the area. CBP headquarters recently announced plans to ratchet up enforcement of ISF rules (see 13062613).
CBP said Oct. 4 it would delay its deployment for a number of new Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) features planned on Oct. 5. "CBP is monitoring the situation for developments and will continue to do so until funding is put in place to re-open the government," it said in a CSMS message. "CBP is ready to deploy and will ensure the Trade Community receives advanced notification of any decision to deploy." The CBP announcement followed a National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America notice saying the deployment would be put off (see 13100417).
A customs broker is embroiled in a whistleblower suit against cellphone case seller OtterBox, alleging the company knowingly failed to include assists in the transaction value of merchandise it imported from China over a five-year period. Former OtterBox employee and licensed customs broker Bonnie Jimenez filed the False Claims Act suit at the Colorado U.S. District Court in 2011, but it wasn’t made public until about one month ago. She says she repeatedly told management that OtterBox was undervaluing cellphone cases that it imported from China, but that management deliberately ignored her pleas. OtterBox moved to dismiss the case on Sept. 25, saying that a prior disclosure of the violations filed with CBP before the Jimenez lawsuit protected it from a whistleblower case.
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CBP is postponing the planned Oct. 5 deployment of several Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) pieces due to the government shutdown, the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America said in an alert. While CBP is ready to deploy on schedule, "due to limited personnel resources within CBP--notably the absence of Client Representatives--and complications being experienced with normal release and post-release processing often related to [Partner Government Agency] systems and their resource limitations during the hiatus, CBP did not want to put further stress on the trade at this time," NCBFAA said.
CBP seems to be accepting and processing protests, despite the government shutdown. CBP personnel at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach are still working on protests, confirmed a spokesman with the port’s public information office. Industry sources tell us the Ports of New York/New Jersey and at John F. Kennedy International Airport have also confirmed they will be processing protests, although with some delays. And other industry sources tell us the ports of Laredo and Detroit seem to be processing protests as well.