Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., expressed doubt during a March 8 hearing that CBP could hire the 2,000 additional CBP officers programmed in the Department of Homeland Security’s fiscal 2017 budget. CBP has fallen short of employment goals since at least fiscal 2014, she said. CBP’s budget for that year called for funding to hire the same number of officers, which the agency has been unable to do.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Participants in the Environmental Protection Agency’s pilot on filing of pesticide shipment data in the Automated Commercial Environment are seeing a drastic reduction in processing times, according to Roy Chaudet of EPA’s Office of Environmental Information during a March 8 webinar. Only three slots are filled in the pilot, which is limited to nine participants, though several other filers are interested and getting ready to file their notices of arrival in ACE, he said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 29 - March 4 in case they were missed.
The Census Bureau is proposing the addition of two new data elements in the Automated Export System, as well as other changes to the Foreign Trade Regulations to enhance clarity and support the move of AES to the Automated Commercial Environment, it said (here). The agency's proposed rule would add fields for an original Internal Transaction Number (ITN) and a used electronics indicator to improve trade data as well as the handling of used electronics to advance “environmentally sound practices” in the disposal of electronic products, Census said. The purpose of the new “original ITN” field would be to help inform the export community and enforcement bodies that a filer completed the mandatory filing requirements for the original shipment and any other shipments.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The Department of Energy is again extending the period for comments, this time until March 14, on a proposal that would require importers of products covered by energy efficiency standards to file a “certification of admissibility” for each shipment of such products at time of entry, it said (here). The Dec. 29 proposed rule would require filing via additional data elements in the Automated Commercial Environment (see 1512290020). DOE had already extended the comment period until Feb. 29 in response to requests from trade groups, and held a public meeting on the rule Feb. 19 (see 1602190039).
CBP saw "the largest percentage increase ever" on the cargo release Automated Commercial Environment submission rate in January, the agency said (here). During January, the ACE submission rate for cargo release moved up 7 percent to 20.4 percent, CBP said. CBP considers the percentages an important measure of readiness for mandatory use of ACE (see 1510190017). CBP also reported that entry summaries filed in ACE fell by 7 percent, while the percentage of entry summaries filed in the Automated Commercial System grew by 1 percent. Unique filers for Partner Government Agency pilots also grew from December to January, up from 114 to 469, CBP said.
CBP made big strides on numerous fronts for Automated Commercial Environment deployment, the agency said in a news release (here). CBP finished deploying all core manifest processing capabilities and 90 percent of core cargo release capabilities during fiscal year 2015, it said. CBP also moved closer to completing post-release and export deployments in ACE, it said. CBP also said it collected $1.2 billion in antidumping/countervailing duty deposits and "18 monetary penalties totaling over $60 million on importers for fraud, gross negligence, and negligence for AD/CVD violations." Additionally, "92 CBP audits of importers of AD/CVD commodities identified $69 million in AD/CVD discrepancies with $7 million collected to date," said CBP. The multiagency Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center initiated 368 seizures of unsafe imported products in FY15, an increase of 107 percent over the previous year, CBP said.