U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a proposed rule that would amend its regulations at 19 CFR Parts 4, 12, 18, 101, 103, 113, 122, 123, 141, 143, 149 and 192 to require Security Filing (SF) information from importers and additional information from carriers (10+2) for vessel (maritime) cargo before it is brought into the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of December 31, 2007. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, tobacco, certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly TRQ/TPL commodity report, dated 12/31/07, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site a notice announcing that the Central Piedmont Community College and the International Freight Forwarders/Customs Brokers Association, in cooperation with CBP, will be holding a seminar (with am and pm sessions) on the Automated Commercial Environment on January 15, 2008 in Charlotte, NC. (If the January 15, 2008 sessions fill, there will be another session on January 16, 2008.)
On June 15, 2007, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2638, the fiscal year (FY) 2008 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, affecting U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued an ABI administrative message on December 21, 2007 advising ABI filers that the problems with the KI (bond query) and TI (5106 Importer add/update), as outlined in Adm: 07-0280 have been resolved.
The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General has issued a report containing an independent audit conducted by KPMG LLP that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's fiscal year 2007 internal financial controls.
In a fact sheet highlighting the outcomes of the 3rd U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, the Treasury Department states that on December 13-14, 2007, Chinese Customs and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials were scheduled to hold technical discussions to agree on the joint validation procedure of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) pilot project in China. Treasury further states that joint validations are expected to begin in early January 2008, led by China Customs and with technical input provided by CBP. (See today's ITT, 07122115, for BP summary of Treasury's fact sheet on the outcomes of the 3rd SED. (Fact Sheet, hp-732, dated 12/13/07, available at http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp732.htm.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI administrative message advising ABI filers that there are problems with the ABI application identifiers TI (CBP Form 5106 add/update) and KI (bond query).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Help Desk's email address has been changed to ACEHELPDESK@cbp.dhs.gov.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that due to the residual effects of the conversion to a new email product, CBP is having difficulties receiving messages for Standard Character Alpha Code (SCAC) and Lloyds updates via its email.