The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Aug. 1 by webinar, CBP said in a notice.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 4-8 in case they were missed.
BALTIMORE -- More than 15 years after CBP implemented the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) program, it's time to raise the standards for supply chain security, said Liz Schmelzinger, CTPAT director at CBP. "CTPAT is 17 years old now," she said, and "really not as effective as it used to be." Most pressing is the need for companies to examine cybersecurity aspects of the supply chain, she said, as the risk of data breaches and cyberattacks continues to grow.
Holland & Knight added Seth Stodder, a former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for border, immigration and trade policy, to the international trade practice, the firm said in a news release. Most recently, Stodder was CEO of consultancy Palindrome Strategies. Stodder also was head of policy at CBP during the Bush administration and helped develop the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, the law firm said.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- CBP is considering offering trusted trader benefits to those in the e-commerce world as a way to improve compliance, said John Leonard, executive director-trade policy and programs at CBP, during a May 2 panel discussion at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's annual conference. The hope is to "incentivize all these new actors in this space to improve the platforms and marketplaces, etc., to be more compliant," he said. "Part of that could involve the Trusted Trader program" and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, he said. CBP "is looking at this very closely."
CBP compiled its mitigation guidelines for penalties related to advance electronic cargo information requirements in a new document. The new document largely follows information released by the agency in 2005 and amended in 2011. "The failure of an arriving carrier (vessel, air or rail) to be automated in the Automated Manifest System ('AMS') at all ports of entry in the United States, or the failure of an arriving carrier (vessel, air or rail) or of any authorized electronic transmitter to provide the required advance electronic cargo information in the time period and manner prescribed by [CBP] regulations may result in the delay or denial of a vessel carrier’s preliminary entry-permit/special license to unlade, an air carrier’s landing rights, a train carrier’s permission to proceed, and/or the assessment of any other applicable statutory penalty," CBP said.
The slew of trade remedies "changes everything" for importers, making programs like drawback and foreign-trade zones more valuable to companies that previously didn't need to consider such options, said Amie Ahanchian, KPMG managing director, Trade and Customs Services, during an April 16 KPMG webinar. Of the 1,333 tariff lines on the Section 301 list (see 1804040019), about 60 percent, or around 800 line items, are duty-free today, she said. That means "if you're importing these items, you may not have ever considered a customs planning strategy because there were no duties to mitigate in the current trade environment," she said.
CBP should engage with "a large group of industry" in a "public comment forum" before moving forward with new minimum security criteria (MSC) in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT), the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) said in a recommendation to CBP. The Trusted Trader Subcommittee made the recommendation during the Feb. 28 COAC meeting in Miami, the last meeting for this COAC. "Much larger outreach effort must be done for members of the CTPAT program, allowing them appropriate time for comment, revisions and implementation," the subcommittee said in a report. The MSC update has been underway for some time (see 1709070010).
CBP plans to issue procedures for ACE outages before the end of the month, the agency said in an Outages Working Group report released ahead of the Feb. 28 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting in Miami. CBP will "publish the public downtime procedures document by the end of February," it said. Following some COAC recommendations in November, "CBP’s Office of Information and Technology (OIT) has assigned a development team to begin working on the recommended enhancements," it said. "Enhancements to the Dashboard will be implemented throughout calendar year 2018."
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Feb. 28 in Miami, CBP said in a notice.