The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida ruled March 31 that Chinese exporter T.T. International is entitled to judgment on its claims of unjust enrichment against BMP International and its U.S. affiliate relating to the sale of refrigerants, disposable cylinders and other products exported from China. Judge Charlene Honeywell sent the case to trial to determine the total amount of damages but also ruled that T.T. is due nearly $1 million from the defendants as that amount is uncontested (T.T. International Co. v. BMP International, M.D. Florida #8:19-2044).
FORT LAUDERDALE -- The supply chain for the custom integrator channel is struggling with a barrage of setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and several natural disasters, said Keith James, Crestron director-strategic supply chain and manufacturing operations, at the Home Technology Specialists Association spring conference last week. James said “some relief” is likely in 2023.
CBP aims to start development of “ACE 2.0” in 2025, building off the work going into CBP’s 21st Century Customs Framework (21CCF) and the legislative framework that emerges from that effort, said Gail Kan, CBP acting executive director for trade policy and programs, during a meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee March 31.
CBP is "exercising discretion in the issuance of liquidated damages and penalties for shipments, where Expeditors International is the Customs Broker, that do not move to a General Order warehouse within the regulatory timeframes," the agency said in a March 28 CSMS message. The discretion is a result of a major cyberattack on Expeditors, it said. "The purpose of this CSMS is to notify carriers, terminal operators and other custodians of unentered merchandise to exercise similar discretion in affected shipments and to prevent unnecessary cost of General Order," CBP said. "This guidance applies to both direct arrival into the U.S. and in-bond movement to subsequent ports. This discretion will expire upon Expeditor’s return to full automated operations. CBP will issue a notice advising of the end of the discretionary period."
The submission or completion of CBP and Department of Defense forms related to imports of household goods and personal effects constitutes "customs business" and requires any third-party filers to be licensed customs brokers, the agency said in September ruling that was recently released. The ruling came in response to an internal CBP information request from the Port of Baltimore on the requirements for the submission of CBP forms 3461, 7501, 3299, and DOD Form 1252.
Megan Conyers, who was executive vice president of the Florida Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association, left the group to start a management consulting firm called Keyshift Strategies, she said in a post on LinkedIn.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated March 23 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):
The submission or completion of CBP and Department of Defense forms related to imports of household goods and personal effects constitutes "customs business" and requires any third-party filers to be licensed customs brokers, the agency said in September ruling that was recently released. The ruling came in response to an internal CBP information request from the Port of Baltimore on the requirements for the submission of CBP forms 3461, 7501, 3299, and DOD Form 1252.
The Census Bureau has received mostly opposing comments on a proposal for a new country of origin data element in the Automated Export System but hasn’t yet made a decision about whether to move forward with the change, said Kiesha Downs, chief of the agency’s Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch. The rule (see 2112140033), which would require U.S. exporters of foreign-produced goods to declare the country of origin (COO) for their item in AES, could lead to costly compliance challenges (see 2201040044), companies and trade groups recently told the agency.
CBP will make three changes to its "debt management processes to increase transparency and access to information for debtors and sureties," it said in a March 16 notice. "One of the enhancements will support importers of record, licensed customs brokers, and other Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) account users who owe debts to CBP by enabling the electronic viewing of bill sanction status and protest details in the unpaid, open bill details report in ACE," it said. "The other two enhancements will facilitate compliance for sureties by providing electronic access to the monthly report listing open delinquent bills by importer name (i.e., the Formal Demand on Surety for Payment of Delinquent Amounts Due, also informally referred to as the 612 Report) in ACE (in lieu of CBP emailing this information to sureties) and improving the content and design of the mailed 612 Report."