The titanium sponge working group, convened after a Section 232 report on the product, as an alternative to imposing tariffs or tariff rate quotas, says that eliminating the 15% tariff on titanium sponge could benefit domestic titanium producers.
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CBP’s final rule on continuing education for customs brokers makes few changes to the agency’s underlying proposal, though much remains to be decided during the implementation process, including specific criteria for approving continuing education courses and accreditors.
Despite changes in how CBP processes drawback claims, the process remains difficult and complex for filers and time-consuming for CBP itself, agency and industry officials said during a June 20 panel at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
An International Trade Commission study of foreign-trade zones, and how U.S. policy supports or undermines their effectiveness, gave some support for the argument free trade zone advocates have made about using FTZs as a staging area for de minimis shipments, but suggested that complaints about treatment under USMCA were overblown.
CBP is “aware” that some imports became subject to new superfund excise taxes on Jan. 1, but “at this time” is unable to process accelerated payment requests for such taxes, it said in a CSMS message April 21. The agency is working on internal procedures to process superfund drawback claims payments made to the Internal Revenue Service, but is “unable to ensure that a request for accelerated payment (AP) of any estimated drawback that may be claimed for such taxes is fully consistent with the requirements of the drawback law,” as is required for accelerated drawback, CBP said.
CBP’s interpretation of the drawback statute and programming of its ACE Drawback Module led to an "absurd" rejection of substitution unused merchandise drawback eligibility for an importer of civil aviation equipment that disregards the basic structure of the tariff schedule, Spirit Aerosystems said in a March 24 motion for summary judgment at the Court of International Trade (Spirit Aerosystems v. U.S., CIT # 20-00094).
CBP reminded customs brokers that their powers of attorney must be updated by Feb. 17 to comply with the agency’s Part 111 customs broker modernization final rule, in a CSMS message Feb. 13. Under the final rule, “a broker must execute a POA directly with an importer of record or drawback claimant (client) and not through a freight forwarder or other third party to transact customs business on behalf of the client,” CBP said.
Electrical cabinets specifically designed to be installed in power control rooms are eligible for drawback, CBP headquarters said in a recently released ruling that CBP issued in September. The ruling followed a request for further review by SMS USA LLC following the denial of its drawback claims.