CBP posted the following documents for the Dec. 11 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
CBP’s October customs broker license exam had a 24% pass rate, CBP said in a memo released ahead of the Dec. 11 meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee. That’s up from the 13% pass rate for the spring broker exam (see 2406180034), but down from the 34% pass rate for the exam held last October (see 2402270045). CBP said a total of 1,045 candidates took the exam, including both “in-person and remote-proctored” test takers.
Customs brokers could start to see considerable fruits of CBP's efforts to modernize ACE sometime in the next two years, according to a CBP official who spoke during a Dec. 10 webinar sponsored by the Los Angeles Customs Brokers & Freight Forwarders Association.
Continuing Treasury Department holdups in vetting new members of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, combined with a few absences, meant that the advisory body didn’t have a quorum to vote on recommendations or other motions at its Dec. 11 meeting.
The possibility of a double whammy come January consisting of a strike at East and Gulf coast ports and the implementation of President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs (see 2411250034) is making shippers nervous, with the National Retail Federation saying that the scenarios could result in a "continued surge in imports through next spring."
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the weeks of Nov. 18-24 and Nov. 25 - Dec. 1:
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP created Harmonized System Update 2419 on Nov. 29, containing 6,479 Automated Broker Interface (ABI) records and 1,487 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records. HSU 2419 includes the AL1 tariff flag for Phase VII of the Lacey Act provisions for certain imported plant and wood products, effective Dec. 1 (see 2409200018). The HSU also reflects the completion of the flagging updates to 1700 HTS codes to remove the AM7 flag. This removal process started Oct. 18 and is now complete.
A bill that was recommended by the House Transportation Committee in May is now ready for a vote by the full House, if leadership chooses to do so, as the committee's report was completed this week.
Brandon Chen, who took the April 2022 customs broker license exam, appealed the final results of his exam to the Court of International Trade, contesting 11 questions that CBP denied him credit for. Filing a complaint at the trade court on Nov. 25, Chen noted that he is only two correct answers away from a passing score of 75% (Brandon Chen v. U.S., CIT # 24-00208).