CBP released its Nov. 19 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 48, No. 46)(here). While it does not contain any ruling articles, it does include recent CBP notices.

CBP is looking into automating the handling of fees at all land ports of entry, said CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske on Nov. 18 while talking at the Council of the Americas. "In Buffalo, we found that some of the delays are caused by handling cash fees," he said (here). "In response, we’re looking to automate that process—not just in Buffalo, but at all of our land ports of entry."

Despite the expiration of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), goods that were eligible for the program's benefits are still eligible when coming from some African countries, said CBP in a CSMS message (here). The "GSP-eligible imports from [African Growth and Opportunity Act eligible] countries continue to benefit from GSP, even during the present lapse in the program," it said. The GSP program expired last year (see 13080110), while AGOA is scheduled to expire Sept. 30, 2015. To receive AGOA preference for eligible goods on a tariff item with the SPI “A,” “A*” or “A+” in the “Special” column of the HTS (and no “D”), importers will transmit the entry summary with the SPI “A” and without duty," said CBP. To receive AGOA preference for eligible goods on a tariff item with SPI “D” in the “Special” column of the HTSUS, importers will continue to transmit the entry summary with SPI “D” and without duty, it said.

A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Nov. 17, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.

The governmental sequestration that continues to require widespread budget cuts reduced the amount payable to affected domestic producers under the Byrd Amendment by 7.2 percent, said CBP (here). There's still some uncertainty as to whether the cuts are considered temporary or permanent, the agency said. The Byrd Amendment, which was repealed in 2007, still allows for some anti-dumping and countervailing (AD/CV) duties collected by CBP to be disbursed to domestic producers injured by foreign dumping and subsidies.

CBP posted a user manual for the coming Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Portal 2.0 (here). CBP plans to launch the first phase of Portal 2.0 on Dec. 8 (see 1411170024). The first phase will include a new interface for the portal, it said. "A main tenet of Portal 2.0 is to facilitate more effective account management through combining multiple Trade Accounts into a single Trade Organization," said CBP in the manual. As part of the second phase, "it will also be possible to merge multiple C-TPAT accounts into a single Security Model, if accounts are managed under the same trade account and follow the same security policies and procedures."

A NAFTA Certificate of Origin is considered defective if, while otherwise meeting the conditions of a “Valid NAFTA Certificate of Origin,” it contains other errors or omissions, said CBP in a CSMS message (here). Defective NAFTA Certificates of Origin are allowed to be subsequently fixed, it said. Such errors or omissions may include "but are not limited to the following: illegibility, misclassification, incorrect or missing preference criteria, signature by an individual who cannot legally bind the company, typed or stamped signature, 3rd-country goods (in addition to NAFTA goods), Net Cost field error, single entry Certificate without an invoice or other unique reference numbers, or other similar errors or omissions."

A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Nov. 14, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.

In the Nov. 12 issue of the CBP Customs Bulletin (Vol. 48, No. 45), CBP published a notice that proposes to revoke a ruling and similar treatment for the tariff classification of paint mixing units (here).

The first phase of the new Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism portal, called Portal 2.0, will launch on Dec. 8, the agency told C-TPAT members, according to customs consulting company Trade Innovations (here). Portal 2.0 is different enough from the previous version that it may require some training, said CBP. The portal will also require new passwords, though no other data is at risk, the agency said. CBP has said it plans to begin the new C-TPAT Exporter Entity after the first phase of Portal 2.0 is completed, though specific timing remains unclear (see 1411060012).