Customs broker Seko Customs Brokerage continued its bid for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against CBP's move to temporarily suspend Seko from the Entry Type 86 pilot and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, filing a brief in support of the motions at the Court of International Trade on July 10 (Seko Customs Brokerage v. United States, CIT # 24-00097).
Starting July 15, CBP will begin pushing entry filers on shipments to input a valid consignee name in ACE, and may take enforcement actions against filers who don't comply.
CBP ignored the metadata of certain photographs and videos in an evasion investigation in order to claim they were unreliable, a wooden cabinet importer argued July 8 at the Court of International Trade (Skyview Cabinet USA v. U.S., CIT # 22-00080).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Shipping, trucking and freight forwarding associations urged the Federal Maritime Commission to reject a request from a group of major ocean carriers seeking to push back the effective date of the FMC’s new demurrage and detention billing requirements (see 2402230049), saying in public comments to the commission that the delay would cause widespread confusion within the shipping industry. But two of those groups said the FMC should at least consider giving the industry more time to adapt to the rules before punishing violators with fines.
One of the biggest issues that EPA inspectors face when overseeing vehicles and motorized engine imports is coming across vehicles that are not compliant with emissions standards and may have emissions controls missing, an EPA enforcement inspector said during a presentation last week held jointly by EPA and NCBFAA.
CBP will on Sept. 17 deploy new ACE functionality to “allow for drawback of Petroleum Superfund taxes,” it said in a July 1 update to its ACE Development and Deployment Schedule. CBP last year said it was unable to process accelerated payment requests for drawback on the superfund taxes, which took effect in 2022 (see 2304210071. The agency also pushed back from June to July the date that it will add broker account access to partner government agency documents via the modernized ACE portal.
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The U.S. on July 1 urged the Court of International Trade to dismiss customs broker Seko Customs Brokerage's suit contesting CBP's suspension of the company from participation in the Entry Type 86 pilot and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program. The government said Seko's claims aren't ripe for judicial review, are moot and are premature (Seko Customs Brokerage v. U.S., CIT # 24-00097).
Witnesses at the annual African Growth and Opportunity Act eligibility review hearing contradicted an earlier comment from the Ethiopian government, which argued that Tigray has been relatively peaceful since November 2022, and basic services such as electricity, water, phone service, education and healthcare have been restored in the region. "Following widespread and substantial reforms of the food assistance structure, which allowed for enhanced oversight and beneficiary selection, USAID resumed food assistance across Ethiopia," Ethiopian representatives wrote.