U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (COAC) will meet on February 21, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Topics to be discussed at the meeting include Air Cargo Advance Screening, the one government at the border initiative, and IPR enforcement. There will be comment opportunities before and during the meeting. The registration deadline to attend or listen to the webcast of the meeting is February 17.
The Government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices for January 29-Feb 1, 2012 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its January 2012 Trade Account Owner (TAO) Update. This update features information on planned ACE functionality for 2012, including e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1), Simplified Entry, the Document Image System (DIS), the Participating Government Agency (PGA) Message Set, and exports. This update also provides information on creating a split shipment via the ACE Portal, new ACE report issues and other updates, etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.
FTC Commissioner Julie Brill urged online companies to implement “reasonable security safeguards,” better transparency, and “important privacy principles” or face FTC scrutiny. The warning came in a Thursday speech to the National Cybersecurity Alliance. An FTC spokeswoman told us separately that the commission plans to release its final privacy report “in the next few weeks.”
In a January 26, 2012 posting, U.S. Customs and Border Protection states it is currently spearheading two projects to modernize the role of the broker: (1) Broker Pre-Certification and (2) Broker Regulation Redesign. The key concepts of this initiative are to leverage broker relationships to extend the opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be recognized as trusted partners, while also allowing for established “best practices” within the industry.
FTC Commissioner Julie Brill urged online companies to implement “reasonable security safeguards,” better transparency, and “important privacy principles” or face FTC scrutiny. The warning came in a Thursday speech to the National Cybersecurity Alliance. An FTC spokeswoman told us separately that the commission plans to release its final privacy report “in the next few weeks.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice containing the trade contact information for the Pharmaceuticals and Electronics Centers for Excellence and Expertise, which have been renamed the "Industry Integration Center for Pharmaceuticals, Health & Chemicals CEE" and the "Information Technology and Consumer Electronics CEE" to show an upcoming expansion of their product scope.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a correction to a prior memorandum and administrative message on the bond requirements for informal entries, to indicate that a single transaction bond may be used as an alternative to a continuous bond, if filers opt to use a CBP Form 3461 followed by an entry summary.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted information on the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) User Requirements provided in the Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) documentation. The CATAIR provides complete information describing how importers and/or their agents can become ABI participants, as well as how they can provide electronic import information to ABI, and receive transmissions from ABI once they have become a participant.