U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that they are expanded the hours of operation for the SENTRI lanes at the Calexico downtown port starting November 24, 2011 through November 26, 2011 to accommodate Trusted Travelers during the Black Friday shopping hours. On November 25, the SENTRI Lanes operated beginning at 5:00 a.m. and remained open until November 26 at 2:00 a.m.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that they expanded the hours of operation for the Otay Mesa Ready Lane starting November 23, 2011. The Ready Lane will operate from 4:00 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday, and 8:00 a.m. to midnight on the weekends. CBP states the expansion of hours will help alleviate extended wait times during the holiday travel period. A CBP official stated that this expansion is in response to increased demand, and that CBP hopes that the shorter wait times will continue to persuade others to obtain an RFID-enabled travel document.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message reminding the trade that it will cease emailing Importer Security Filing (ISF) Progress Reports after the December 2011 reports. The reports will be available to recipients through the ACE Secure Data Portal. Those who do not have a free ACE Portal account can access the online ACE Portal Application here.

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

On November 17, 2011, the Government Accountability Office informed certain Congressional subcommittees about its review of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's updated expenditure plan for border security fencing, infrastructure, and technology. (FY 2010 appropriations legislation required the Department of Homeland Security to submit to Congress an expenditure plan for FY 2010 and an updated plan for FY 2011.) In its review, GAO notes that the FY 2011 expenditure plan satisfies some, but not all, of the legislative conditions. GAO recommends, among other things, that the Secretary of Homeland Security enhance the expenditure plan by ensuring that explanations are included for all required legislative conditions that are not fully addressed. (See ITT’s Online Archives 09101605 for summary of legislation requiring DHS to submit the expenditure plan to Congress.)

A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted to CBP's Web site as of November 21, 2011, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. These messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://addcvd.cbp.gov.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the 2012 tariff rate quota on mandarin oranges (satsumas) in airtight containers will open on January 3, 2012 with a low-duty quantity of 40,000,000 kg.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the 2012 tariff rate quota on peanut butter and paste provided for in HTS Chapter 20, Additional U.S. Note 5 will open on January 3, 2012 with the below-listed countries or areas having the following duty-free quantities:

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 an updated version of its TRQ/TPL "threshold to fill" list, a quick reference to monitor TRQs and TPLs that are approaching their restraint limit or have filled their in-quota (low) rate. The list is divided into two sections: those that are at least 85% filled and those that are filled.