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

Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioner Ann Marie Buerkle voiced frustration to House lawmakers on Feb. 25 over the agency’s proposed collection of user fees from importers to finance a new import screening system, and challenged the constitutionality of the potential federal action. “I continue to believe that our imposition of fees could and would and should raise constitutional concerns,” she said during a hearing of the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. “We have a risk assessment methodology. So we apply that risk. Some products are subject to that. Some are not. And some fall prey and they get pulled because they’re high-risk. And so our benefit is only for some.” She said not all of industry will derive the same benefits from the fees, which means the user fee is a tax. CPSC doesn’t have the authority to levy taxes.

CBP formally spelled out its revised timeline for making the Automated Commercial Environment the sole Electronic Data Interchange for providing import data required by CBP and some other agencies in a notice (here). The notice follows CBP's recent decision to delay some mandatory use dates for ACE following readiness concerns (see 1602080042). "While significant progress has been made, continued concerns about trade readiness have necessitated an updated timeline for the mandatory transition to ACE for electronic entry and entry summary filing," said CBP. "As a result, CBP has developed a staggered transition strategy, to give the trade additional time to adjust their business practices and complete programming for entry and entry summary filing in ACE."

CBP made some changes in its draft Automated Commercial Environment business process document that reflect the new transition timeline (here). "The ACE Cargo Release Business Processes document provides an overview of processes, procedures and policies associated with the filing and release of entries in ACE," said CBP in a CSMS message (here). CBP posted a first draft last year and requested industry comments (see 1505180010).

The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (here), signed into law by President Barack Obama on Feb. 24, establishes new requirements for customs brokers to verify the identities of their importer clients, as well as a new importer of record database. It also provides for CBP's National Targeting Center to issue "Trade Alerts" directing CBP port personnel to inspect high-risk merchandise, and directs CBP to accept private sector training on classification, appraisement, and other enforcement issues.

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

All live entries at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport filed within Automated Commercial Environment Cargo Release should go directly to CBP's financial team in Long Beach, said CBP Port Director Carlos Martel in a public bulletin on Feb. 23. "Since ACE Cargo Release is considered a paperless program, brokers/filers will only be required to submit in a green folder, CBP Form 7501 or 7501A, with a check attached to the Financial Team," said Martel. "The invoice, packing list, and remaining supporting documents shall be uploaded onto the Document Image System."

The new processes for antidumping and countervailing duty evasion investigations and intellectual property rights protections are likely to be some of the first items addressed by the CBP once customs reauthorization legislation is signed by President Obama, said Alice Kipel, CBP's new executive director of regulations and rulings (ORR), during a Feb. 23 interview. Only about two months into her new job (see 1602120034), Kipel already faces the daunting task of prioritizing some of the biggest changes in the agency's long history. In addition to implementation to the customs bill, Kipel will help oversee the regulatory process for Automated Commercial Environment rules as well as look to improve speeds on customs rulings responses, she said.

The Food and Drug Administration recently posted a list of valid unit of measure codes for filings in the Automated Commercial Environment (here) to its ACE/ITDS webpage (here). Use of a code not included on the list will result in an ACE entry rejection, said FDA. Each level of packaging should be declared, and the same code cannot be declared more than once, it said. The list also includes examples for each commodity type.

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