CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
CBP applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark its Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) logo, the agency told industry members (here) and (here). Trademarking the logo will give additional protection from misuse of the logo, it said. "All licensing agreements will be issued free-of-charge," it said. The C-TPAT Partner Agreement will be updated with proper use clauses and C-TPAT members will need to agree to the clauses in order to renew their status, said CBP. "Until such time as a Partner’s next annual review, Partners are authorized to continue current uses of the trademark," the agency said. "Partners who are removed or withdrawn from the C-TPAT program must cease using the trademark." The trademark is only being licensed to C-TPAT members "at this time," it said. CBP's C-TPAT office, Office of Public Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security Office of the General Counsel collaborated on the application. CBP did not respond to a request for comment.
New International Organization for Standardization (ISO) specifications for security seals are set to go into effect May 15, CBP reminded Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) members in a notice. ISO published the new standard, ISO 17712:2013, last year. C-TPAT criteria requires that "all seals must meet or exceed the current ISO 17712 standards for high security seals," though C-TPAT members "may continue to use the remaining ISO 17712:2010 high security seals they have in stock and then look to purchase ISO 17712:2013 high security seals in the future," the agency said. CBP also reminded C-TPAT participants to be careful when buying the seals and that they should get independent written certification from the supplier to make sure the seals meet the required standard.
NCBFAA Broker Known Importer Program Has Benefits, Also Liability for Customs Brokers, Say Panelists
LAS VEGAS -- The Broker-Known Importer Program will at least start as an industry initiative because of restrictive rules on how CBP can launch official pilot programs, said Alan Klestadt during a panel discussion April 9 at the annual conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA). The association last year suggested that CBP adopt the program, which is meant to leverage some basic information brokers collect about their clients. The NCBFAA is coming up with the verification criteria and will open the program up to both association and non-association participants. In return, the NCBFAA is asking CBP to create an entry flag and incentivize importer participation. Klestadt says the NCBFAA wants CBP will conduct a survey 14 months into the program to see how it’s working. Eventually, the NCBFAA hopes CBP will formalize the program through regulations or a policy document.
CBP completed 346 total Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) validations, including 82 initial validations and 264 revalidations for 2014 as of April 1, it said in an update on program statistics. There have also been a total of 1,814 suspensions and 1,319 C-TPAT removals.
NEWPORT, R.I. -- A notice announcing the long-discussed "Trusted Trader" pilot is now facing additional legal reviews, which continue to delay a Federal Register notice that was expected to be out last month (see 14031203), said Elena Ryan, CBP director of Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs) Transition Team, The pilot would combine Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) with Importer Self-Assessment (ISA). "We were hoping to have that out by now but we did need to go through some additional legal reviews," she said at a Coalition of New England Companies for Trade conference on April 1. "A lot of the things you have been hearing about now for a while are all still largely intact," including a multiphase approach, she said.
CBP is expected to begin to test a program that would allow importers of branded merchandise to send information to the agency through the Document Image System (DIS), said Karen Kenney of Liberty International, who is current co-chair of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) Trade Enforcement and Revenue Collection Subcommittee. Kenney, who is also chairman of the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT) discussed COAC's ongoing work during a CONECT conference in Newport, R.I. on April 1. While not definite, a Federal Notice for the pilot may be out in early summer, she said.
CBP officials are now targeting March for the beginning of its combined Trusted Trader Pilot, they said during a panel discussion at the CBP Trade Symposium on March 7. A Federal Register notice announcing the program was originally scheduled for September 2013, but was pushed back to the end of 2013 before again being postponed to allow for participation by the Food and Drug Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (see 13052032, 13111920 and 14021819). The long-delayed voluntary program would combine the supply chain security elements of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) with Importer Self-Assessment (ISA) trade compliance requirements, and CBP has said it would allow for a single validation and management approach (see 12120321).
CBP will face a number of new logistical challenges as it works to transition three Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs) to handle several entry processes for entire industries, said industry and agency officials that spoke at the 2014 Trade Symposium. The first three CEEs to make the shift -- those handling electronics, petroleum and pharmaceutical industries (see 14030613) -- will be tasked with processing the entries of tens of thousands of companies when they previously handled under a hundred, said CBP officials during a panel on the CEEs.
CBP completed 143 total Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) validations, including 41 initial validations and 102 revalidations for 2014 as of March 4, it said in an update on program statistics. There have also been a total of 1,793 suspensions and 1,306 C-TPAT removals.