U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted its new Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) minimum-security criteria for highway carriers, which are effective as of March 13, 2006.
CBP Issues Instructions on Filing & Acceptance
The House Commerce Committee Wed. unanimously passed a cellphone privacy bill that would make it illegal for online companies to sell phone records without consumers’ permission. The bill would expressly outlaw “pretexting,” the practice of impersonating another’s identity to obtain someone’s records over the phone. The measure also includes a narrow law enforcement exemption so police can obtain data for investigations. “I look forward to quickly moving this bill to the floor,” said Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum providing instructions for the filing and acceptance of claims for preferential tariff treatment of goods made under the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an administrative message that reminds Customs brokers that correspondence relating to certain matters must be directed to the appropriate CBP port director(s), and not to CBP headquarters.
CBP has posted a presentation that provides information on the Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS), a feature of its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). According to CBP, this presentation was developed for members of the trade community to utilize in their presentations to other members of the trade community as part of the ACE and PMS outreach effort. The presentation discusses the benefits of PMS, which include: (1) providing additional flexibility and potentially significant cash flow advantages, (2) allowing the broker to select either a national or a port statement, (3) allowing the broker to pay on behalf of the importer on either an importer or broker statement from the importer or broker Automated Clearing House (ACH) account, etc. (CBP's ACE Periodic Monthly Statement overview, dated March 2006, available at http://www.customs.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/briefings_info/trade_pms_presentation.ctt/trade_pms_presentation.pdf.)
CBP has issued its weekly tariff rate quota (TRQ) commodity report as of February 27, 2006. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain JFTA, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, UAFTA and UCFTA TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CBTPA, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA (CFTA) tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly quota commodity report, dated 02/27/06, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has scheduled the next Customs Broker License Examination for Monday, April 3, 2006.
The Wall Street Journal reports that as China's trade clout grows, its manufacturers are increasingly running afoul of Western anti-trust law in products from Vitamin C (where half a dozen civil antitrust suits have been filed against Chinese manufacturers) to magnesite - a mineral used in steel production. According to the article, these anti-trust accusations are the result of Chinese companies forming alliances to raise prices - a effort to stave off dumping accusations. (WSJ, dated 02/10/06, www.wsj.com )
In 2005, the Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled in U.S. v. Pan Pacific Textile Group et al. (Pan Pacific), that the principal is responsible for unpaid duties under 19 CFR 1592(d) stemming from fraudulent customs violations by his agent, who was the "importer of record" for certain tracksuits imported from China.