Despite a wide range of open questions about new antidumping and countervailing duty evasion enforcement proceedings, CBP fully expects to meet the required deadlines of the customs reauthorization law, said Carrie Owens, chief of CBP’s entry process and duty refund branch. Owens spoke during a panel discussion hosted by the American Bar Association on May 19. The agency is in the process of "furiously drafting" regulations and standard operating procedures related to the implementation of new AD/CVD enforcement measures, required to be implemented by Aug. 23, she said. The agency will also issue an interim final rule that will give some guidance as CBP seeks comments on proposed regulations, Owen said.
CANCUN, Mexico -- The nature of e-commerce includes several features -- high velocity, hyper high volume and low value -- that makes "a recipe for a lot of risks," from a customs perspective, said Rich DiNucci, executive director, Cargo and Conveyance Security, at CBP, while speaking on May 12 at a World Customs Organization conference. The velocity of e-commerce moves "at a rate that's going to demand changes to our processes," he said. The industry is also "highly competitive," which makes collaboration difficult right now, he said. "Every time I think that I have a handle on e-commerce mentally, I realize that I don't," he said.
The recently increased $800 de minimis limit is causing a shift in business practices for brokers and importers, and raising questions and concerns over a growing number of low value shipments, said customs brokers and importers in recent interviews. Some in the trade community still await guidance on how to proceed with low-value shipments regulated by agencies other than CBP. There is also some concern the higher limit could cause more importers to break up their shipments to avoid the entry process and associated duties, customs brokers said.
The U.S. is pushing for advance ruling procedures based on its own rules, a 48-hour target for release of goods, and a process which would set a four-hour guideline for clearing expedited shipments under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, according to documents claimed to be leaked from TTIP's customs and trade facilitation text. While neither the U.S. nor EU confirmed authenticity of the documents, both sides criticized conclusions made based on the texts. The customs text is one of 13 chapters leaked, according to Greenpeace Netherlands, which posted the texts (here).
CBP should announce mandatory ACE filing dates “as soon as possible” for any agencies or entry types for which mandatory filing dates have not yet been announced, said the Commercial Customs Advisory Committee (COAC) in a recommendation formally adopted at a meeting held April 27. Some importers surveyed say their brokers are waiting for the announcement of the deadlines, particularly for Food and Drug Administration data, before they start filing in ACE, while brokers need to know when agency data will be required so they can adequately plan their development and training efforts, said COAC members during the meeting.
TUCSON, Ariz. -- The customs reauthorization law makes for an "exciting and perhaps challenging" time for customs brokers, CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said during a speech at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference on April 20. He pointed to new requirements that brokers collect information on new and foreign importers and CBP's ability to revoke licenses due to terrorist involvement, as well as other pieces that will have the biggest effect on brokers. Kerlikowske was scheduled to testify on the new law for a Senate Finance Committee hearing scheduled for April 20, but it may be postponed so Kerlikowske can attend the funeral of a recently killed border agent, he said.
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Implementation of new trade enforcement provisions of recently passed customs reauthorization legislation will not result in an overall increase in cargo exams, said CBP officials speaking April 19 at the annual conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. Though CBP is focused on creating its new Trade Law Enforcement Division tasked with issuing trade alerts (see 1602230080), as well as implementing new programs to apply risk assessments (see 1602170074), the agency’s overall goal is better targeted exams, not more of them, they said.
World trade policy should better facilitate the entry of more diverse stakeholders in global commerce, the National Foreign Trade Council said in a policy brief (here). “Economies have a chance to create new pathways at the WTO to modernize global trade rules for the 21st Century and remind the world of the central rule-making role that the organization can play,” NFTC wrote. “It is time to reinvigorate the WTO.” Creating plans to support “micro,” small, and medium-sized businesses and plans advance an “open, secure and reliable” global digital economy would mobilize development and business interests to back “meaningful” new rules at the World Trade Organization and could reestablish the body’s centrality to global trade negotiations if successful, NFTC said.
Being able to file a single customs declaration for all imports or exports in a given period is one of the few currently discernible benefits that companies would enjoy after implementation of a bilateral trusted trader framework pitched by the European Union in a proposal released March 21 on customs provisions in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (here), industry executives said in interviews over the past week. In addition to the single customs declaration, the proposal lists low documentary and data requirements, low physical inspection rate, and deferred duty payments as required trusted trader benefits, as well as provisions on customs single windows, though it lacks specifics on an EU de minimis increase.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership will help reduce entry times, provide better information for exporters, and modernize sanitary and phytosanitary trade practices, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Director for Japan and Korea James Fatheree said during a panel discussion in Washington March 30. His words echoed findings in an analysis of the TPP by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (see 1603220062), which projected removal of non-tariff barriers will have a bigger impact on TPP member states than tariff reductions. “It helps reduce the time it takes to get goods into the market once they’ve landed,” Fatheree said during the event, hosted by the Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy on Capitol Hill. “That’s all good stuff. There was not, unfortunately, any provisions for cross-TPP de minimis standards, which would’ve been something that would help, I think, overall.”