U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing that on November 18, 2011, the ACE CATAIR Importer/Consignee Create/Update Chapter was updated to clarify the submission of foreign postal codes in the Importer/Consignee Create/Update (TI) transaction. The updated CATAIR Chapter is available here. The 2011 CATAIR Change Record is available here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS Message (#11-000296) providing a Spanish version of its November 2011 Trade Account Owner (TAO) Update. The English version of the TAO Update is available here. See ITT's Online Archives 11113013 for summary.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that CBP agriculture specialists and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service/Plant Protection and Quarantine (APHIS/PPQ) officers intercepted two types of insects on a shipment of pine trees from Canada. The insects found were; a flea beetle, (Longitarsus sp. (Chrysomelidae)), and a white pine weevil (Pissodes Sp. (Curculionidae)). All infested and contaminated shipments with actionable pests or violations are safeguarded and transferred for appropriate re-export and/or destruction.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection states that with the Christmas holiday approaching, its agriculture specialists working at U.S. ports of entry are making sure that imported Christmas trees, branches, or wreaths are free from insects and pests that could harm trees in the U.S.' national forests and neighborhood backyards. CBP provides the following advice to those importing such goods:

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, the delayed "limited deployment" testing of M1 (ocean and rail e-manifest) user screens by CBP officers at the ports of Baltimore, MD; Buffalo, NY; and Brownsville, TX is now scheduled to begin on December 5, 2011. This pilot test will allow CBP to assess the use of the ACE M1 system by its officers and early adopters in the trade.

In the November 30, 2011 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (Vol. 45, No. 49), CBP published two notices that propose to modify one ruling and revoke two rulings and similar treatment regarding the tariff classification of play paper money and porcelain travel coffee cups.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources have informed Broker Power that the pass rate for the October 2011 customs broker license exam was 25%. There were no problem questions.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have issued the following news releases:

This summary report highlights the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels¹ from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” It also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted documents providing an update on the Integrated Fixed Towers (ITF) Program, which CBP states will assist Border Patrol agents in detecting, tracking, identifying, classifying items of interest along U.S. borders through a series of fixed sensor towers and command and control center equipment. CBP is focused on acquiring surveillance equipment, power generation and communications equipment, command and control center equipment, etc. With these documents, CBP is providing information and notifying industry of its plan to release a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) in early December 2011 to solicit industry feedback and to release a final RFP in January/February 2012. The documents are available here and here.