CBP and the Food and Drug Administration are updating the ACE Partner Government Agency flags for FDA requirements, CBP said in a CSMS message (here). "Specifically, the tariff numbers that had flags for [Automated Commercial Service Other Government Agency] of FD0 are getting ACE PGA requirements updates to have either no FDA flag, FD1 (FDA May Be Required) or FD2 (FDA Required)," it said. CBP also provided a spreadsheet of FDA Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes with associated flags in ACE (here).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP's Commercial Targeting Enforcement Directorate and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) are working together on a project to use "commercial trade data to enhance and identify pattern identification, entity links, and anomalies within large datasets," the Department of Homeland Security said. The project was mentioned within a newly released DHS 2016 data mining report to Congress (here). The project, called Socrates, "was initiated to determine the analytical abilities JHU/APL could apply to trade data analytics" and "during Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, a pilot test was completed by JHU/APL using import data," DHS said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America endorsed President Donald Trump’s nominee for CBP commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, saying that he understands how to resolve ongoing challenges associated with e-commerce processing, the rollout of ACE and revision of customs broker Part 111 regulations, according to a letter the group sent to the Senate Finance Committee (here). In the letter addressed to committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., NCBFAA President Geoffrey Powell added that McAleenan has demonstrated that CBP can work with its 49 partner government agencies in ensuring that imports meet requirements for health, safety, intellectual property, antidumping and countervailing duty enforcement, and “enlightened labor standards.” McAleenan "has demonstrated leadership within CBP that gives us confidence in the agency and should provide you assurance that it will meet its responsibilities in enforcement and in the facilitation of trade,” Powell said. “NCBFAA is strongly supportive of his nomination.” Powell urged the committee to hold a confirmation hearing “as soon as committee procedures and schedule permit.” Senate Finance didn't comment.
Industry groups asked the U.S. government to work to repeal restrictions on NAFTA drawback and duty deferral and to expand ACE, in response to the Commerce Department’s request for information (here) on regulations that hamper domestic manufacturing. Although negotiators included the drawback and deferral restrictions in NAFTA to prevent China from using Mexico as a platform for component parts to be exported to the U.S., several companies involved in duty preference programs for foreign investors and domestic firms have nevertheless convinced suppliers from Asia and Europe to establish production facilities in Mexico to replace imports from non-NAFTA sources, according to the Duty Drawback Coalition’s comments (here). To counter the negative effects of NAFTA drawback restrictions on foreign-owned manufacturing plants in Mexico, Mexico established Sectoral Promotion Programs, which reduce several standard duty rates, the coalition said. Canada has reduced duty rates to mitigate the effects of the NAFTA drawback restrictions as well, the group said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP deployed a fix on April 6 to allow for the use of Post-Summary Corrections to change an entry from an antidumping or countervailing duty entry to another entry type, CBP said in an April 13 CSMS message (here). "In recent months, a technical validation issue prevented the successful filing of a PSC to change an 03 entry type (AD/CVD) to a non-AD/CVD entry type," the agency said. "A fix was deployed to the applicable validation and the ability to change an entry from 03 to a non-AD/CVD entry type via PSC is now available." A CBP official recently said some continued use of ACE and the Automated Commercial System is causing PSC issues, among others (see 1704060029).