On June 29, 2010, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Consumer Product Safety Commission held their annual fireworks safety demonstration on the National Mall in Washington. D.C. about the dangers associated with fireworks, especially illegal explosives.Dan Baldwin, CBP Assistant Commissioner for the Office of International Trade, stated that import safety is a priority trade issue for CBP, noting that CPSC personnel are now co-located in CBP's Import Safety Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center in Washington, D.C., and CBP assists the CPSC in selectively sampling and testing shipments of imported fireworks to determine if they are compliant with the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. CPSC press release on firework safety is available here.

CBP has issued the June 2010 ACE Trade Account Owner (TAO) Update. The update covers the creation of declaration records, CBP Form 28, 29, 4647 status report, bond update, recent ACE updates, frequently asked questions, etc.

Broker Power is now issuing weekly summary reports highlighting the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels¹ from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” BP’s weekly report also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.”

CBP 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.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a final determination that Mexico is the country of origin for certain dimmer and fan speed switch controls for purposes of U.S. government procurement.

CBP has issued a CSMS message announcing that it has posted the Periodic Monthly Statement User Guide under “ACE Training and Reference Guides.” The guide provides an overview of benefits and information on obtaining, viewing and processing periodic monthly statements through the ACE portal.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a document listing the Remote Location Filing operational locations. The list includes the port name, port code, the Electronic Invoice Program (EIP)/RLF coordinator, the phone number (and extension, if applicable), and the fax number for each location.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has updated its overview of benefits and information on obtaining, viewing and processing periodic monthly statements through the ACE portal.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a TSN Leadership network matrix which lists all of the TSN Committees and subcommittees with the Trade and CBP/Gov Co-Chairs and the ACE Support Team (AST) Business Leads. The matrix also includes a list of the current TSN Trade Ambassadors.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton has congratulated Mexico's law enforcement community for their recent award presented by the World Customs Organization for seizing the most counterfeit intellectual property (IP) products this year. "With this honor, Mexico has established itself at the forefront of the international struggle to combat this very serious problem" said Morton.