International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 4-8 in case they were missed.
CBP has stopped its validations of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CTPAT Director Manuel Garza said in a May 1 post on the CBP website. “While 2020 validations have currently ceased due to COVID-19, CTPAT is working diligently to explore alternative options that will ensure the continuity and security of the validation process,” Garza said. CBP recently said it wouldn't be delaying dates around implementation of the updated Minimum Security Criteria, but it will allow for more discretion in the validations (see 2004160022).
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 13-17 in case they were missed.
CBP should update its regulations on prior disclosures to clarify the requirements and benefits of prior disclosures of forced labor violations, the Commercial Customs Operation Advisory Committee said in recommendations adopted at the April 15 COAC meeting. Regulations on forced labor should also be amended, and guidance documents issued, to clarify what should be included in a forced labor allegation, as well as how CBP should inquire about potential violations and how importers should respond, the COAC said.
CBP won't be delaying dates around implementation of the updated Minimum Security Criteria for the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, but it will allow for more discretion in the validations, said Thomas Overacker, CBP executive director, Cargo and Conveyance Security. Overacker addressed concerns about the requirements during the April 15 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting.
As this year’s deadline for applications for the Voluntary Qualified importer Program approaches, formal interest in the Food and Drug Administration’s trusted trader scheme for food importers is nearly non-existent, despite high hopes from the agency when it was announced several years ago. Unclear benefits, a high cost of participation and a multitude of barriers to entry are among several issues keeping importers away, experts on importing food say.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet April 15, remotely, beginning at 1 p.m., CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by April 14.
CBP’s cargo operations remain mostly unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, CBP said on a call held March 13, according to an emailed update from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. There are no additional screening requirements for cargo because medical professionals have advised that COVID-19 is transmitted by people not cargo, CBP said on the call, according to the American Association of Exporters and Importers. “If CBP receives different guidance, they will relay that information immediately,” CBP said, as relayed by the NCBFAA.
CBP is in the very early stages of considering whether to expand the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program to foreign-trade zones, said Lydia Jackson, FTZ program manager in the CBP Office of Cargo and Conveyance Security. She spoke Feb. 11 during the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones legislative summit. The question has been approached before by CBP, and the agency previously found the problem to be that the FTZ importer is “not always the same entity, etc., etc.,” she said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters: