CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:​

CBP and other agencies involved in trade still have some ways to go before resolving an ongoing debate on how to describe goods in Section 321 shipments, said Christa Brzozowski, deputy assistant secretary for trade and transport at the Department of Homeland Security, at the U.S. Air Cargo Industry Affairs Summit Sept. 6 in Washington. The government still needs to work through process issues related to what goods are eligible for expedited release, and what role partner government agencies (PGAs) will have in the process, before considering whether to require 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule numbers or written descriptors, she said.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:​

CBP issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:​

The Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service acted within its authority when it issued rules for imports of species of seafood the agency has deemed high-risk, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in an Aug. 28 ruling. The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and individual seafood importers and processors filed the lawsuit to challenge the rule, which was issued in December last year and includes new ACE filing requirements at time of entry beginning in January 2018 (see 1612080014). The companies said the NMFS undercounted the burdens to industry of the and rule and that only the Food and Drug Administration has the statutory authority to regulate seafood fraud. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta disagreed with those arguments and ruled in favor of the government.

CBP posted its ACE deployment schedule, which reflects recent changes to deployment plans (see 1708230027), the agency said in a CSMS message. Two items, Automated Surety Interface: Billing Information and collections, were removed entirely from the schedule, according a list of changes included with the schedule. For those items, "capability will remain in [the Automated Commercial System] until further notice," it said.

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 21-25 in case they were missed.

CBP’s Office of Field Operations (OFO) plans to roll out an interim standardized format for foreign-trade zone compliance reviews by Oct. 31, the Department of Homeland Security said in response to a Government Accountability Office report. The GAO report, released Aug. 28, found that CBP doesn't "centrally compile FTZ compliance and internal risks" to help analyze risks across the FTZ program. FTZs accounted for 11 percent of imports in 2015, and incorrect risk level determinations could impact FTZ program effectiveness and revenue collection, the GAO said.

CBP on Aug. 29 issued additional guidance on cargo affected by port closures from Hurricane Harvey. For now, nothing needs to be done for entries and entry summaries that have already been filed, even for cargo diverted to other ports. Pending entry summaries for entries already filed at affected ports should be filed at the same port, while pending entries should be filed at the new port of arrival, CBP said. In the long-term, the trade community should expect the Port of Houston and other affected ports to be closed for the “foreseeable future” and plan their shipments accordingly, said Gary Schreffler, acting chief of CBP’s Cargo Control & Release Branch, during a call held Aug. 29.