The World Customs Organization should continue to use the Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate (SAFE) Trade for e-commerce rather than create a set of entirely new standards for that purpose, said Christa Brzozowski, Department of Homeland Security deputy assistant secretary for trade and transport. Brzozowski spoke Monday on a panel about the WCO at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference. “We question whether there is value in creating sort of two distinct rules of the road, two distinct sets of tools for 'traditional flows' and 'e-commerce flows,'" she said. Instead, DHS would like to see the WCO “look and harken back to the bedrock principles of SAFE and not relitigate, not readjudicate, things we've spent a lot of time and effort to develop, but really try to identify those areas -- be it risk management, be it data, be it partnerships -- where the key characteristics of e-commerce and digitalization requires us to perhaps amend or update some of the compendium tools, ” Brzozowski said. There's also talk of a pilot to prevent counterfeiting and piracy, said Geodis’ Mary Jo Muoio. “This pilot is working with maritime transport industry to raise awareness, encourage them to know their customers" and “enhance their own risk profiling and information sharing” to prevent intellectual property rights violations, she said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is amending the list of goods from China newly subject to 10 percent Section 301 tariffs to remove frozen salmon and make conforming changes to subheadings covering wood. Effective Sept. 24, USTR is removing from the list subheadings 0304.81.10 and 0304.81.50, which cover frozen salmon, in order “to account fully for the extensive public comments and testimony previously provided” in the Section 301 investigation.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission will hold a public meeting this fall to discuss next steps for its pilot of electronic filing in ACE, said Sabrina Keller, deputy director of CPSC’s Office of Import Surveillance, at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference Sept. 24 in Washington. The commission recently published the results of a study of data elements found on CPSC certificates of compliance and their relevance to targeting, she said.

The Department of Homeland Security would like the World Customs Organization to continue to use the SAFE Framework of Standards for e-commerce rather than create a set of entirely new standards for that purpose, said Christa Brzozowski, deputy assistant secretary for trade and transport at the Department of Homeland Security. Brzozowski spoke on a panel about the WCO at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference Sept. 24 in Washington. "The concern from my perspective, from DHS' perspective and potentially from the U.S. government perspective -- that paper is still circulating, but we hope to present yet again at the WCO in early October -- is that we question whether there is value in creating sort of two distinct rules of the road, two distinct sets of tools for 'traditional flows' and 'e-commerce flows,'" she said.

A Canadian customs broker told a group of her colleagues from the U.S. that the last year "has been probably the most challenging year of my life." Kim Campbell, who is president of MKMarin Trade Services, fears it could get worse. If the Trump administration decides to levy tariffs on Canadian cars, car parts or uranium under Section 232, the amount of goods that now cross the border tariff-free would drop dramatically, she believes, because Canada would have to put in place counter-tariffs.

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept.17-21 in case they were missed.

New filer evaluation processes recently announced by the Food and Drug Administration have now been adopted as standard operating procedures, and the agency’s field offices will start using them “beginning immediately,” said John Verbeten, director of FDA’s Division of Import Operations, at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference Sept. 24 in Washington.

Customs brokers this week will be lobbying congressional leaders to press the Department of the Treasury and CBP to change the proposed rule that excludes excise taxes from drawback, and will be asking members to co-sponsor the Customs Business Fairness Act (see 1712180053). The act, H.R. 4657, would change bankruptcy law so that customs brokers are not subject to clawback on duties advanced to CBP after a client declares bankruptcy.

The Court of International Trade on Sept. 24 dismissed a lawsuit from an importer whose Generalized System of Preferences refund request was denied as late, even though the cause was a misunderstanding with the importer’s customs broker. Industrial Chemicals had missed the 180-day deadline to file requests for refunds of duties paid during the GSP lapse of 2013-15. The importer had through a series of emails understood that its broker would request the refunds, and vice versa. After its eventual refund request was denied because it was filed after the deadline, Industrial Chemicals had protested, arguing the issue amounted to a “clerical error, mistake of fact, or other inadvertence.” CBP denied the protest in a ruling issued in November 2017 (see 1711170036). The trade court agreed, finding CBP’s decision was not protestable. The law renewing GSP “clearly states that importers must submit requests for retroactive application of GSP over certain entries by December 28, 2015,” CIT said. “Although Customs makes certain decisions related to the liquidation or reliquidation of merchandise, the plain language of the statute does not appear to give Customs discretion in administering refunds for this particular lapse in GSP,” it said.

Advance manifest submissions will be required in the truck environment for low-value Section 321 goods starting Jan. 1, CBP's Todd Owen said at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference on Sept. 24. "We are starting to make notice to the trade community that we are changing our policy on that and 321 shipments on truck coming from the border will require electronic submission ahead of time," he said. The truck environment was previously exempt from the advance manifest filing requirements, he said. The policy change is due in part to the added risks created with the rapid growth in low-value shipments and will allow for CBP to apply its advanced targeting to the truck environment, he said. While advance filing for trucks coming from Mexico was required in many places due to individual port directors, it's less common on the northern border, Owen said.