CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
CBP updated its Website for tracking antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) cases, it said in a CSMS message. "The site, which includes AD/CVD cash deposit, liquidation, scope ruling, and other public AD/CVD instructions, will assist importers and other members of the trade with their AD/CVD compliance, and help to facilitate legitimate trade," it said. "While providing faster access to the trade to AD/CVD instructions, the new automated site also saves CBP significant man hours in manually processing and reformatting of AD/CVD instructions required under the previous ADDCVD Search website. This is part of CBP’s effort to automate AD/CVD functionality and focus resources on AD/CVD evasion enforcement."
In the Jan. 29 issue of the CBP Customs Bulletin (Vol. 48, No. 4), CBP published two notices that propose to revoke rulings and similar treatment for the tariff classification of mink feeding vehicles and assembled multi-die products.
The CBP Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Cargo Release pilot will be expanded to include ocean and rail modes of transportation, the agency said in a notice. The agency will seek new participants in the pilot program, which previously only applied to air transportation, and add three optional data elements for rail and sea entry filers, it said.
CBP should clarify how customs broker recordkeeping requirements apply to the storage of client data on third-party servers, potentially in a foreign country, said a broker in a ruling request dated Jan. 10. Such storage on remote servers, commonly referred to as "the cloud," has become increasingly common and CBP insight is necessary on the issue, said Robert Schott, president of Airschott, in the request. Cloud-based storage seems to be in "apparent conflict" with 19 CFR 111.24, he said.
CBP posted a Jan. 29 version of its CF 1400 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Entrances) electronic query report of the Vessel Management System (VMS), in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by entrances. CBP also posted a version of its CF 1401 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Clearances) electronic query report of the VMS, in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by clearances.
CBP updated a notice to its website regarding its 2001 announcement that it would no longer be providing importers with free reports of entry summaries that have been flagged for reconciliation and would instead provide such reports on a fee-for-service basis only.
CBP posted updated spreadsheets showing active AD/CVD cases and the associated case numbers, ISO country codes, tariff numbers, and short descriptions of each case as of Oct. 1. Active antidumping cases are (here). Active countervailing cases are (here).
CBP issued its Jan. 29 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 48, No. 4), which contains the following ruling actions:
The "first sale" between Asian jewelry manufacturers to an unrelated middleman company may be used as the transaction value for appraisal of the merchandise, which is subsequently imported through an affiliate to the middleman, said CBP in a Jan. 7 ruling. The undisclosed importer requested input from CBP on whether the transaction value could be appraised based on the "first sale." The request was submitted by lawyers at Hogan Lovells. The ruling provides insight as to the documentation necessary to show a "first sale" occurred between a manufacturer and a middleman.