Felicia Pullam, executive director of trade relations at CBP, defended the administration's proposal to end de minimis eligibility for goods subject to Section 301 tariffs as workable, arguing that charging a $2 fee per de minimis package will allow the agency to hire more staff to screen for contraband, and pushing back on industry arguments that collecting tariffs on low-value packages costs the agency more than that revenue.
A Department of Treasury official acknowledged Sept. 18 that “personnel changes in the Treasury Security Department” are creating a backlog in the process of appointing additional members to the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee.
In August, CBP seized 1,997 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $993 million, the agency said Sept. 16 in a monthly update.
The Court of International Trade on Sept. 5 said a CBP headquarters ruling on see-through pop-up tent "pods" that differed in outcome from a previously decided protest didn't require public notice-and-comment because the protest wasn't a "prior interpretive ruling or decision." Judge Timothy Reif dismissed one of importer Under the Weather's counts in its customs classification case on the pods, finding that the prior protest approval wasn't the result of "considered deliberations," didn't have "prospective effect" and wasn't "interpretive."
Trade associations are generally pleased with the trade facilitation discussion draft issued in the Senate last week (see 2407310037), though they all noted that moving to a true one-U.S.-government data submission and release regime requires money, which may not follow, even if the bill becomes law.
CBP unveiled Aug, 2 a list of proposals further defining just how President Joe Biden expects the agency to implement Biden’s "Detect and Defeat" legislation (see 2407310030) aimed at thwarting fentanyl and other illicit drugs from entering the U.S. via the millions of de minimis shipments or imports that are worth less than $800.
A bipartisan pair of senators fleshed out a trade facilitation framework released in early June (see 2406100015) with legislative text that authorizes spending to create a true single window and modernize ACE, as well as details of how duty drawback could change.
A coalition of business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the E-Merchants Trade Council, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Express Association of America, is pushing back against the de minimis legislation that was approved in the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this year, arguing that it would be "a massive cost to the federal government," shift trade to the mail, and create congestion at airports and a wave of abandoned packages.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called for a "legislative fix" to the de minimis exception "and the exploitation of that exception," the first time the administration has clearly said it hopes Congress will restrict the program that allows purchasers to import up to $800 worth of goods per day without paying tariffs.
CBP Executive Director for Trade Policy and Programs Brandon Lord told an audience during a Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting that its work groups had offered "very thoughtful, forward-leaning recommendations," and that he was particularly excited about their new vision of a customs brokers exam.