The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee's (COAC) Broker Modernization Working Group will recommend that CBP unify the registration and "site selection process" for candidates applying for the customs brokers licensing exam. The goal would be to include "registration, site selection, payment, and other ancillary requirements," the working group said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Registration for the May 1 customs broker license exam opened on Feb. 20 and will close March 21, at 4:30 p.m., CBP said. Registration for the exam can be found at the Customs Brokers webpage on CBP's website. The agency previously announced that the exam date was being moved from April 24 to May 1 (see 2312120046).
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Georgia woman Skeeter-Jo Stoute-Francois filed suit at the Court of International Trade Feb. 16 to contest six questions on the October 2021 customs broker license exam. In her complaint, Stoute-Francois said that after appealing the test results to the Treasury Department, she was left just short of the 75% grade needed to pass the test, failing at 73.75% (Skeeter-Jo Stoute-Francois v. U.S., CIT # 24-00046).
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet March 6 remotely and in person in Charleston, South Carolina, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by March 1.
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The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is asking for more transparency around recent surcharges imposed by carriers, saying its members are seeing "sharply" increasing rates for shipping routes that never routed through the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden (see 2402080083 and 2401050066).
More than a hundred organizations wrote an open letter calling upon governments to unite behind a “zero-tolerance” policy to deter attacks on vessels and seafarers in the Red Sea and “anywhere in the world.” The letter, dated Feb. 8, said that more than 30% of the world’s trade moves through the Red Sea and that the attacks have caused more than $80 billion in cargo to be “diverted” around the Cape of Good Hope.
The annual Customs Broker permit user fee of $174.80 is due by Feb. 9 and can be paid through that date by using the eCBP portal at https://e.cbp.dhs.gov/ecbp/#/main, CBP said in a CSMS message. Permits will be revoked if the payment is not submitted in time, CBP said. The fee amount is up from last year's $163.71 (see 2311270038).