International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 24-28 in case they were missed.

CBP hopes a long-discussed update to customs broker regulations in 19 CFR Part 111 will be considered "deregulatory" under the Trump administration's executive order on reducing regulatory burdens (see 1702070048), Robert Altneu, chief of CBP's Trade and Commercial Regualtions Branch, said July 26. That executive order requires that there be two offsetting regulations for every new "significant" regulation, and CBP now believes the Part 111 update could be such an offset, he said. Altneu spoke during a webinar hosted by CBP and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America.

A customs broker's vessel entry and clearance services do not constitute customs business, CBP said in a recent ruling. The activities performed by the broker, Schenker, are all either not covered by CBP regulations on customs business or are specifically exempt, CBP said in ruling HQ H260075. Because the activities do not have to be performed by a customs broker, Schenker may expand its vessel entry and clearance services to other ports without having to get additional broker district permits, CBP said in the ruling, issued in April.

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

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its updated 2017 regulatory agenda for CBP (here). The agenda doesn't include any new rulemakings involving trade. Previously listed rulemakings, including on the Centers of Excellence and Expertise (here) and Importer Security Filings (here), continue to be on the agenda.

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 10-14 in case they were missed.

The Trump administration in the upcoming NAFTA renegotiation will push for "disciplines on the use of customs brokers," for Canada and Mexico to raise their de minimis levels, and to eliminate the binational dispute settlement process for challenging duties, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in its renegotiation objectives released July 17 (here). Another objective is to provide for streamlined and expedited customs treatment for express shipments, including for shipments valued over the de minimis threshold.

CBP is extending the comment period to Aug. 14 on an existing information collection related to regulations on customs brokers. CBP proposes (here) to extend the expiration date of this information collection with no change to the information collected but with an increase in the estimated burden hours associated with the collection, due to more applicants expected.

CBP is proposing to set procedures in its regulations for adjusting Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) fees for inflation (here). The inflation adjustments and fee limitations were required by the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, passed in 2015 (see 1512040024), which specifies that fees are to be adjusted every year on April 1. CBP determined no adjustments were necessary on April 1, 2016, and April 1, 2017. Affected fees include the merchandise processing fee, vessel and truck arrival fees and the customs broker permit user fee. Comments are due Aug. 16.

The Court of International Trade on July 13 found an importer negligently misclassified entries of bags for storing cold beverages, despite having consulted its customs broker as to the correct classification (here). Farhan Khan did not exercise reasonable care because he should have consulted other sources after receiving three conflicting suggestions from his broker, and improperly relied on his broker's opinion to classify related but different beverage bags, CIT said.