CBP issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of Sept. 2. This report (here) 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.
The CBP Airport and Seaport Inspections User Fee Advisory Committee established two subcommittees and associated tasks during a public conference call. The call announced the creation of a financial assessment and options subcommittee to assess user fee collections. The subcommittee is to provide CBP with an international overview of user fees, create a map on how industry collects and transmits user fees to CBP and discuss the need for a third-party study on user fees. The committee also created a processes subcommittee, which will look into how CBP should improve its processes, said Maria Luisa Boyce, senior trade advisor at CBP, during the call. The agency may also look outside the committee to industry members for "subject matter expertise, if needed," she said. The first public meeting will take place on Oct. 22, said Boyce. The committee, which will provide advice to the CBP commissioner on trade and immigration user fees, port staffing levels and inspectional services, was created by the agency last year (see 13111903).
There are several common problem areas for consumption entry single transaction bond (STB) filings that deserve special attention from brokers and surety companies, said CBP San Francisco in an information notice. "These inaccuracies lead to questions about the validity of bonds submitted by entry filers, brokers and surety agent representatives," said the notice. "It also leads to the possibility that there may not be adequate supervision and control." CBP identified the problem areas through several audits and internal reviews, it said. The accuracy of the bonds is the responsibility of the "entry brokers, including those who exercise responsible supervision over brokerage offices, and surety agents or representatives," it said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 25-29 in case they were missed.
CBP's Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center hosted an Aug. 26 meeting between 11 federal agencies involved in the regulation of imports, said CBP in a press release. The meeting, "showcased CBP’s leading role in interagency coordination for protecting American consumers from dangerous imported products" and provided a forum for each partner government agency to present their top areas of import safety risk and their plans for addressing those risks through trade targeting operations in the coming year," said CBP.
CBP should provide more detail on the agency's reasoning behind planned updates to an informed compliance publication (ICP) describing first sale valuation, said the American Association of Exporters and Importers in comments to the agency. AAEI is among a number of commenters that are largely critical of the agency's planned revisions to the ICP (see 14080624 and 14081416). The draft ICP includes a controversial list of documents the agency might request from industry to verify the use of first sale pricing (see 14071025).
Two members of a group charged with importing and selling counterfeit toys from China pleaded guilty on Aug. 27, said the Justice Department in a press release. Chenglan Hu and Hua Fei Zhang were the last of nine defendants to plead guilty to charges relating to "importing children’s toys with copyright-infringing images and counterfeit trademarks of popular children’s characters, as well as unsafe lead levels, small parts that presented risks of choking or ingestion, easily-accessible battery compartments, and other potential hazards," said the DOJ. Hu and Zhang, who also agreed to forfeit $700,000 and more than 120,000 toys, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein of the Eastern District of New York. Sentencing will be announced at a later date, the agency said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
CBP is having another problem causing a delay for the Aug. 22 periodic monthly statement automated clearing house debits and daily debits on Aug. 25 and 26, said CBP (here).
CBP posted the transcript (here) and presentation (here) from a Aug. 26 webinar on Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) reports and exports.