The U.S. brought a customs penalty suit against importer E-Dong U.S.A. for failure to pay federal excise tax on entries of soju bottles from South Korea. Filing a complaint March 28 at the Court of International Trade, the government said that the company entered the soju, a Korean spirit, via "material or false statement" by failing to reference any of the owed excise tax (U.S. v. E-Dong, U.S.A., CIT # 24-00066).
Vessels arriving with cargo for unloading in Baltimore may consider using a different U.S. port until further notice, CBP said in a CSMS message on March 29. Vessel arrival notices and manifest updates would be required to make a switch, including updating the port of unlading, the agency said in the notice. The port has been closed to vessel traffic since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed March 26 (see 2403260047).
PHILADELPHIA -- The glacial pace of developing electronically submitted export manifests is finally picking up, participants on a CBP export modernization panel said, with Tom Pagano, outbound enforcement policy branch chief, saying "we're really close."
CBP is in the process of selecting accreditors for its continuing education requirement for customs brokers, said Shari McCann, director of commercial operations for CBP's Office of Trade, during a session at the CBP Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit on March 28.
PHILADELPHIA -- Getting the funding for ACE 2.0 is the biggest challenge, the executive director of CBP's trade transformation office said. He said the agency was unsuccessful in the budgetary process, and asked industry to lobby their representatives for funding.
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PHILADELPHIA -- Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the "de minimis exception" impacts CBP's work to stop illegal drugs and other contraband from entering the United States.
PHILADELPHIA -- When CBP ran an audit to estimate how many packages that enter under de minimis violate Customs laws, it found about 9% did, either through misclassification, insufficient documentation, or more serious violations, like smuggling narcotics.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated March 25 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
A combined $1.8 million proposed forfeiture for Nexstar and sidecar operation Mission broadcasting over Mission’s station WPIX New York will likely create uncertainty about similar arrangements that other broadcasters use, though attorneys and the FCC say Thursday’s notice of apparent liability is narrowly targeted. “We stress that the decision we reach today is limited to the facts before us and the relationship between Nexstar, Mission, and WPIX,” said the NAL. On the other hand, “If you’re a broadcaster with a sidecar, you’re saying ‘uh oh,’” said Holland & Knight attorney Charles Naftalin. Nexstar said it will dispute the enforcement action “vigorously.”