CBP is unjustifiably holding up regulatory changes for drawback required by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 by including them in a 450-page regulatory package that may take years to wind through the rulemaking process, said several companies challenging CBP’s interim drawback procedures at the Court of International Trade in a recent legal brief. Responding to the government’s motion to dismiss their case, the plaintiffs said part of the reason CBP hasn’t yet issued its new drawback calculation rules is likely because its upcoming Part 190 proposal includes non-urgent, optional conforming regulations that go beyond Congress’ mandate.
Drawback
A duty drawback is a refund by CBP of the duties, taxes, or fees paid on imported goods, which were imposed upon importation. More broadly, a drawback also includes the refund or remission of other excise taxes pursuant to other provisions of law. CBP's duty drawback scheme under the Customs Act of 1962 allows exporters to receive a refund on customs duties they paid on imported products that are then used or incorporated into other products for export or remain unused until importation.
CBP issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 9-13 in case they were missed.
The slew of trade remedies "changes everything" for importers, making programs like drawback and foreign-trade zones more valuable to companies that previously didn't need to consider such options, said Amie Ahanchian, KPMG managing director, Trade and Customs Services, during an April 16 KPMG webinar. Of the 1,333 tariff lines on the Section 301 list (see 1804040019), about 60 percent, or around 800 line items, are duty-free today, she said. That means "if you're importing these items, you may not have ever considered a customs planning strategy because there were no duties to mitigate in the current trade environment," she said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP’s proposed regulations on new procedures for drawback under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act are now at the Office of Management and Budget for review, according to the OMB website. The long-awaited rulemaking had been held up for months while the Treasury Department reviewed its provisions (see 1710040050 and 1802020053). OMB says it received the regulatory package on April 6. A recent court challenge seeks to compel CBP to issue the overdue regulations (see 1803260048), which under TFTEA were due Feb. 24.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 26-30 in case they were missed.
CBP is extending the comment period until April 30 on an existing information collection related to the drawback process regulations, it said in a notice. CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection with no change to the information collected and a decrease of the estimated burden hours associated with the collection.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 19-25:
CBP on March 26 released a new version of its interim guidance on drawback claims filed under new Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA) procedures. Changes in this third version include a new policy that entry summary documents for imports affected by CBP’s “mixed claims” policy do not need to be included in the required document image system (DIS) upload, as was required by the original policy guidance, but may be required for verification. The latest version also clarifies that claims will not be rejected if they do not comply with the “first filed” rule, but that claims that do not comply may be liquidated with no refund, “depending on how the rule is implemented in the final regulations.” Claim amounts may require modifications if there is a violation of the first filed rule, and the modification may be reversed when the claim is perfected, if the final regulations do not implement the first filed rule, CBP said in the updated interim guidance.