According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 19 CFR 112.12(a) requires all carriers desiring to be authorized to receive merchandise for transportation in-bond to file with U.S. Customs and Border Protection a bond on CBP Form 301, containing the bond conditions set forth in 19 CFR 113.63, accompanied by a fee of $50.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that Chicago CBP agricultural specialists working at O'Hare Airport recently found khapra beetle in two 10-pound bags of rice being shipped amidst clothing, pots and pans, and other personal effects coming into the U.S. from India. This interception was made on August 16, 2011, while CBP was enforcing a federal quarantine that restricts the importation of rice into the U.S. from countries with known khapra beetle infestations.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that CBP agriculture specialists at the Port of Philadelphia intercepted, for the first time at that port, a Kentish snail while inspecting a shipment of home furnishings from Germany. CBP issued an Emergency Action Notification that required the container to be thoroughly treated or re-exported. The Kentish snail (scientifically known as Monacha cantiana (Montagu)) is known to occur in Europe and is considered a major threat to agriculture crops, gardens and landscapes.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a press release on CBP Commissioner Bersin's opening of the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee’s (COAC) second meeting held in Long Beach, CA on August 18, 2011. At the meeting, Commissioner Bersin emphasized that partnerships with other countries, other governmental agencies (OGAs), and the trade community are essential for further success in moving forward. Meeting participants also discussed the management by account pilot programs, the Center of Excellence and Expertise (CEE) and Account Executive, which will likely become part of the CEE on October 1. Other topics on the agenda included simplified entry and processing, the role of the broker revision project, and updates on the progress of work being done on the land border security initiatives, air cargo security, Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), etc.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection states that effective July 14, 2011, the State Department recognizes the new country of South Sudan. CBP has updated the ACE and ACS country files for both Sudan and South Sudan. The ISO and Customs Country Codes for Sudan are SD 7320, and for South Sudan SS 7323. Questions may be directed to Ms. Lisa Nguyen at (202) 863-6225.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has provided more details about the unplanned Automated Commercial System (ACS) database outage that occurred the weekend of August 20, 2011. CBP states that the ACS outage was caused by a failed database routine that took the system down for approximately 14 hours.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection states that due to the impending hurricane on the east coast, it is tentatively moving the outage window that would normally occur on Saturday evening to Friday evening as a precaution. The tentative outage window will occur on Friday August 26th at 11:00 p.m. and continue until Saturday August 27th at 9 a.m. This outage will include the normal maintenance as well as the delayed deployment of the M1 Sea and Rail Manifest code to production and therefore will require a longer than normal outage window.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that it seized a cache of prohibited weapons en route to Missouri City, Texas, that were listed as toys and household items originating in China. CBP officers examined the shipment and found cartons containing 1,063 switchblade knives, 95 batons, 304 stun guns, 388 sets of brass knuckles, and 115 sets of brass knuckles with four-inch knife blades. The switchblade knives are a violation of the Switchblade Knife Act (15 USC 1241-5) and were subject to forfeiture. The other weapons were seized because the importer failed to declare them as such and erroneously listed the items.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice proposing to close the port of entry of Whitetail, Montana. CBP notes that the port of Whitetail is one of CBP's least trafficked ports, processing an average of less than four privately owned vehicles per day for the last four years. The facility was built in 1964 and has undergone little renovation since. CBP has determined that the facility does not have the infrastructure to meet modern operational, safety, and technological demands for ports of entry and that major renovations would be required if Whitetail were to continue operations. Comments are due by September 23, 2011.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a correction, effective August 24, 2011, of its final rule on the discontinuation of electronic courtesy notices of liquidation to importers of record whose entry summaries are filed in the Automated Broker Interface. In the preamble of the final rule, CBP mistakenly said that Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism members may receive Import Trade Activity (ITRAC) report for free. According to CBP, Importer Self Assessment (ISA), not C-TPAT members, receive free ITRAC reports.