CBP released its Feb. 12 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 48, No. 6). While the Bulletin does not contain any ruling articles, it does include recent Court of International Trade decisions and general notices.
CBP is considering an update to its foreign-trade zone (FTZ) pilot program that would expand direct delivery to non-owner operators that are enrolled in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program, said Lydia Jackson, FTZ Program Manager at CBP. "We would like to leverage the C-TPAT program to allow for liberalizing direct delivery requirements," she said at the National Association of FTZs Regulatory and Legislative Seminar Feb. 11 in Washington. Long-planned changes to its in-bond regulations are expected to come soon, though the final rule is still being reviewed by the Treasury Department, said another CBP official.
Scott Lowden , previously Of Counsel with Braumiller Law Group, left the firm to work on his own, he said by email. Lowden will "continue practicing trade law now with my own clients, at my own pace and I’ll try to do more writing, probably for blogs and newsletters," he said. Additionally, he'll work to promote a recently published book on importing law fundamentals, he said.
CBP issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of Feb. 10. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, and tobacco; and certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, OFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, OFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying textile articles and/or other articles; the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc.
CBP issued a final determination that an undisclosed country not designated within the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) is the country of origin for Plantronics cordless headsets. The headsets, which are assembled in the non-TAA designated country, are imported fully functional from another undisclosed TAA country, said CBP. CBP found that "the country where the last substantial transformation of the headsets occurs is [non-TAA country], that is, where the major assembly processes are performed." Therefore, the country of origin for government procurement procurement is the non-TAA country, said CBP.
CBP posted an updated version of its notice announcing that the next customs broker license exam will be on Monday, April 7.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 3-7 in case they were missed.
Foreign copyright piracy and “market access barriers” to U.S. copyrighted material have a “significant negative financial impact on the U.S. economy and content creators,” said the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) in comments submitted to the U.S Trade Representative (USTR) in its Special 301 review, according to an IIPA release (here). USTR's Special 301 review asks for comments to “address the theft of intellectual property” and other copyright concerns, said the IIPA release. China, India, Russia and Vietnam should be on the USTR Priority Watch List, said the IIPA, in the release. China and Canada are a “particular concern” for the publishing industry, said the Association of American Publishers (AAP), an IIPA member, in its USTR comments, according to an AAP release (here).
New lobbyist registrations on trade-related issues include:
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues: