The U.S. and Canada 2013 Implementation Report on the Beyond the Border Initiative shows some major progress towards implementing the agreement between the two countries, said the White House in a blog post . The report (here) looks at the ongoing work toward improved trade and travel between the two countries since the Beyond the Border initiative was started in 2011. ""Both countries have started to rely on the other’s offshore inspections of marine shipments to reduce the need for re-inspection at the land border," said the White House. "Also, the U.S. truck cargo pre-inspection pilot in Surrey, British Columbia, tested new approaches for conducting screening at the land border. We are building on these accomplishments to complete preclearance negotiations for all transportation modes."
CBP showed a sizable decline in employee satisfaction, leaving the agency toward the bottom of the latest ranking of federal agencies by the Partnership for Public Service, a think tank. CBP ranks 277th out of 300 agency subcomponents in employee satisfaction, the report said (here). The Partnership for Public Service said it uses data from the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to rank agencies and their subcomponents according to a Best Places to Work index score. CBP's index score fell to 45.1 in 2013 from 58.5 in 2012, the survey found. A fellow subagency of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, was below CBP in employee satisfaction, ranking 291st, the report said (here). DHS ranked last among large agencies, the group said (here).
CBP finalized five new partnerships that will allow for expanded services at domestic ports of entry, the agency said Dec. 19. CBP was authorized to create "a reimbursable fee agreement program to increase CBP’s ability to provide new or enhanced services on a reimbursable basis to support growth in cross-border trade and travel, ”as part of the 2013 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (see 13051329), it said. The partnerships include El Paso, Texas; the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport; South Texas Assets Consortium; Houston Airport System; and Miami-Dade County.
CBP internal discussions on the "need for security and trade investigation into existing means to retrieve entry information in the context of a liquidation" will require a reevaluation of some existing Great Idea Forms (GIF), said a Trade Support Network (TSN) report for October. " It was agreed that the existing method for posting legal notice of liquidation is outdated, but whether it should be posted in ACE or another government hosted website may be determined by financial considerations," it said.
CBP said its Harmonized System Update 1306 was created Dec. 19, containing 75 ABI records and 19 harmonized tariff records. The update, effective Jan. 1, contains modifications mandated by the Committee for the Statistical Annotation of Tariff Schedules. Adjustments required by the verification of the 2013 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) are also included, CBP said in a CSMS message. The modified records can be retrieved electronically via the procedures indicated in the CATAIR. Further information: Jennifer Keeling, Jennifer.Keeling@dhs.gov.
The World Customs Organization's added some new features to its IPM program that allows intellectual property rightsholders to exchange information with field customs officers, said the WCO. "The new version of IPM integrates two major technical developments: a hand-held mobile device, and the ability to interface IPM with authentication and/or traceability solutions companies," it said. The mobile device means that field officers can verify a product by scanning a barcode, which initiates IPM's authentication application, said WCO.
The theme for the March 6-7 East Coast Trade Symposium in Washington will be “Increasing Economic Competitiveness Through Global Partnership and Innovation,” said CBP in a notice. The event will be held at the Washington Hilton and will include discussions "regarding CBP’s role in international trade initiatives and partnerships," it said. Further information, including agenda and speakers, will be released later, it said. Registration, which opened Dec. 18 for the event, is available (here).
CBP completed 1,792 total Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) validations, including 480 initial validations and 1,312 revalidations for 2013 as of Dec. 2, it said in an update on program statistics. Validations continue to be down compared to previous years, the update said. There has also been a total of 1,745 suspensions and 1,264 C-TPAT removals.
In the Dec. 18 issue of the CBP Customs Bulletin (Vol. 47, No. 50), CBP published two notices that propose to revoke rulings and similar treatment for the tariff classification of USB flash drives and lanterns.
Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Dec. 18 with 126 rulings, bringing the total number of searchable rulings to 179,901. The most recent ruling is dated 12/05/2013.