The Court of International in a July 7 opinion upheld CBP's decision to deny Shuzhen Zhong, an individual who took the customs broker license exam, a customs broker's license. Zhong, appearing pro se, had appealed two questions on her test to get to a passing grade of 75% or higher. Looking at CBP's defense of the answers to those questions, Judge Jane Restani ruled that CBP's decision to deny credit for both questions was backed by substantial evidence.
The Biden administration should urge West Coast ports and their dockworkers’ union to extend their current contract until a new one is reached, more than 150 trade groups said in a July 1 letter to the White House. The administration also should make sure both parties “agree to not engage in any kind of activity that leads to further disruption at the ports.”
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The Biden administration should urge West Coast ports and their dockworkers’ union to extend their current contract until a new one is reached, more than 150 trade groups said in a July 1 letter to the White House. The administration also should make sure both parties “agree to not engage in any kind of activity that leads to further disruption at the ports.”
CBP’s April 2022 customs broker license exam had a 39.6% pass rate, which is “relatively high compared to past examinations,” according to a document posted by CBP for the June 29 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting. Despite having offered the exam remotely for its April and October 2021 exams, the April 2022 exam was only offered at on-site testing centers, the document said. CBP is “committed to bringing back the remote exam option,” and is currently looking at lessons from its two previous exams for future implementation, Brandon Lord, CBP deputy executive director-trade policy & programs, said at the meeting.
Trade Law Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. All articles can be found by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Treasury Department published its fall 2022 regulatory agenda for CBP. The only new mention of any regulations is a return to the agenda for a final rule that would "create a procedure for the disclosure of information otherwise protected by the Trade Secrets Act to a trademark owner when merchandise bearing suspected counterfeit trademarks has been voluntarily abandoned." CBP issued the underlying proposal in 2019 (see 1908260040), and the final rule had been on Treasury's regulatory agenda for 2020 and spring of 2021 before moving to the long-term actions category in the most recent agenda.
DHS published its fall 2022 regulatory agenda for CBP. There were no new trade-related rulemakings included, though upcoming regulations on continuing education requirements for customs brokers is now listed at the final rule stage.
CBP provided more details on the transition to national permits once its final rule amending its Part 111 customs broker regulations takes effect, in a fact sheet released June 23. The fact sheet, which details the Part 111 changes proposed in June 2020 (see 2006040037), says that about 400 brokers currently are still operating without a national permit, despite the likely elimination of district permits in the upcoming final rule. CBP will “transition this pool of brokers to a national permit” between publication of the final rule and its effective date, with district permits remaining active until the final rule takes effect and ACE national permit programming is in place, the fact sheet said.
A Federal Maritime Commission proposal that would require container documentation to include the names of all non-vessel operating common carriers in a shipping transaction would create too large of a burden on industry, two logistics companies said in comments this month. One company said it wouldn’t be able to comply with the change, forcing it to regularly violate the regulation.