The National Marine Fisheries Service will allow a period of “informed compliance” after compliance with new ACE filing requirements for certain species under the Seafood Import Monitoring Program takes effect Jan. 1, CBP said in a CSMS message. Entries rejected because of missing or incorrect SIMP data that cannot be resolved in a “timely manner” may be refiled under the same entry without the SIMP message set, the agency said. The entries will be released with a warning message as long as all other NMFS filing requirements are met, and the filer will be required to submit the correct SIMP information “as soon as possible.” Entries that are not corrected “in a timely manner” will be “targeted with a full chain of custody audit,” NMFS said.
Customs brokers will be able to file their 2018 triennial reports and pay their broker license fees beginning on Dec. 15, CBP said in a CSMS message. The fees and reports, which must be filed by Feb. 28, may be submitted online via the website Pay.gov. The $100 fee may be paid by credit card, debit card, PayPal or Amazon Pay, with no additional transaction fees. Though the fees may also be paid in person or by mail at the port that originally delivered the license, CBP is actively encouraging brokers to use the electronic payment option, which allows brokers to “save time and submit online,” said Troy Riley, executive director for commercial targeting and enforcement at CBP, at a recent agency conference.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 4-10:
ATLANTA -- CBP is looking at options to create a “foreign entity ID” to replace the manufacturer ID it currently requires on entry documentation, said Jeff Nii, director of CBP’s interagency collaboration division, at the East Coast Trade Symposium on Dec. 6. Alongside its counterparts on the Border Interagency Executive Council (BIEC), the agency is looking into several options, including working with a non-profit standards organizations and creating the IDs on its own, prioritizing low cost in the hopes that the entity ID system garners worldwide adoption. The BIEC, which is currently finalizing its own operating procedures, will also soon begin consideration of product sub-identifiers that would provide more detail than currently allowed by the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, Nii said.
ATLANTA -- The next several years represent an opportunity for CBP and the trade community to begin work on “Mod Act 2.0” legislation to set the stage for modernized customs processes over the next few decades, said Cynthia Whittenburg, deputy assistant commissioner in CBP’s Office of International Trade, at the East Coast Trade Symposium on Dec. 5. After 24 years under the original Customs Modernization Act of 1993, “we find ourselves once again inhibited by our current legislation and regulations,” she said. Judging by that law, which took five to seven years until final passage, the process could be a lengthy one, she said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 27 - Dec. 3:
ATLANTA -- CBP is waiting for NAFTA negotiations to “mature” before making a final decision on how it will handle Section 321 shipments, Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said during opening remarks at the East Coast Trade Symposium on Dec. 5. Though the agency had “hoped to articulate a clear path forward” at the conference, the agency has to “let that dialogue play out with our key partners in Canada and Mexico,” he said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should put in place a “soft compliance” policy for its Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) filing requirements when they take effect on Jan. 1, 2018, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a letter to the agency citing concerns over trade community readiness. Despite “extensive outreach” by NOAA, customs brokers and their importer clients are having trouble getting the required data from other actors in the supply chain, and there has been insufficient time for testing in ACE, the NCBFAA said in the Dec. 1 letter.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 20-26:
The Court of International Trade on Nov. 27 denied an importer’s request to have the government cover its attorneys’ costs and fees from a lengthy case on CBP’s authority to reliquidate entries that had been deemed liquidated. CBP was justified when it denied the protest that led to the court case because the aggrieved importer, Consolidated Fibers, raised outdated arguments on the protest, even though the company would eventually prevail after raising different claims in its lawsuit.