In early March 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a Truck Manifest CSMS message on the Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest update that is currently scheduled to be implemented on April 5, 2008.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a revised version of its informed compliance publication entitled, What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Caviar.
Discount retailer TJX and data brokers Reed Elsevier and Seisint settled FTC charges of not providing “reasonable and appropriate” security for consumer data, in unrelated cases. The companies must impose comprehensive information security programs and be audited by independent third-party security professionals every other year for 20 years. The commission said that TJX, with more than 2,500 stores worldwide, didn’t use “reasonable and appropriate” security measures to prevent unauthorized access to personal information on its computer networks. A cyberattacker exploited the failures, obtaining tens of millions of credit and debit payment card numbers that consumers used at TJX stores, along with personal information of approximately 455,000 consumers who returned merchandise to the stores (WID Jan 19 p3), the agency said. Reed Elsevier (REI), via its LexisNexis data broker business, and Seisint, acquired by LexisNexis in 2004, collect and store data on millions of consumers, including names, current and prior addresses, dates of birth, drivers license numbers and Social Security numbers. The companies relied on user IDs and passwords (or “user credentials") to control customer access to material in their databases. The FTC alleged that, among other failures, the companies let customers use “easy-to-guess passwords” to access Seisint “Accurint” databases holding sensitive consumer data. Identity thieves exploited these lapses, obtaining in multiple breaches access to sensitive data on at least 316,000 consumers, the FTC said. Thieves used the data to activate credit cards and open accounts, making fraudulent purchases. The breaches went on for at least nine months after REI acquired Seisint in late 2004, the commission said.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Mexico's government is preparing to open bidding on the largest infrastructure project in its history, a $4-billion seaport on Mexico's Baja peninsula, that would link the Pacific Ocean to the U.S. heartland. Vessels bearing shipping containers from Asia would offload them at the new port where they would be taken over newly constructed rail lines to the U.S. (Los Angeles Times, dated 03/25/08, available at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mexport25mar25,1,5870690.story)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a new informed compliance publication entitled, What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Classification of Coated and Water Resistant Apparel.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of March 24, 2008. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, tobacco, certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly TRQ/TPL commodity report, dated 03/24/08, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
World Trade reports that a proposal currently under consideration in New York City would charge truckers $21 for driving in certain high congestion zones in Manhattan during peak hours, but truckers would be offered an exemption if they are operating low emission vehicles. (World Trade, dated March 2008, www.worldtrademag.com)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a Truck Manifest CSMS message with an attachment providing further guidance on the upcoming April 5, 2008 ACE e-Manifest update that will give truck carriers (and customs brokers) the capability to arrive in-bonds at destination by equipment (trailer/container, etc.), export in-bonds that have previously arrived by in-bond bills of lading and container/equipment, and to cancel in-bond arrivals and exports.
On March 3, 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a Truck Manifest CSMS message announcing that the Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest update that will give truck carriers and customs brokers the capability to arrive in-bonds1 at destination by equipment (trailer/container, etc.), export in-bonds that have previously arrived by in-bond bills of lading and container/equipment, and to cancel in-bond arrivals and exports, has been delayed to April 5, 2008.
The Chair of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC)1 has submitted "unofficial" comments on CBP's proposed rule to amend 19 CFR to require Security Filing (SF) information from importers and additional information from carriers (10+2) for vessel (maritime) cargo before it is brought into the U.S.