New drawback procedures under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 are now available in the ACE certification environment for testing, CBP said in a CSMS message. The agency has also updated its draft Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) for TFTEA drawback, it said. “Please be advised that this technical document is considered a DRAFT and is subject to revision before a final version is provided. Any actions a reader takes based on this draft document are taken voluntarily and with the understanding that the draft may be revised,” CBP said in the message.
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.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Nov. 6-9 in case they were missed.
The draft drawback CBP and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) “is considered a DRAFT and is subject to revision before a final version is provided,” a CBP spokesman said. “CBP has not issued a proposed rulemaking as of this date and cannot comment on the points raised by NCBFAA,” he said, referring to an update the trade group sent out Nov. 6 on ongoing discussions on ACE drawback (see 1711060043). “The CATAIR will be amended to reflect the policy decisions reflected in the published final rule after considering public comments. NCBFAA is correct that any decision to accept submission of claims as of February 24, 2018, will be separately announced to the public at a later date.” The NCBFAA had said that, beginning Feb. 24, CBP was considering not using accelerated payment for processing claims under the new procedures of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 until the date that the TFTEA drawback regulations become final.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Oct. 30-Nov. 3 in case they were missed.
CBP will likely adopt a hybrid “dual calculation system” for drawback in ACE, with substitution drawback calculated using line item per unit average and invoice level calculations for direct identification drawback, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in an emailed update on Nov. 6. The decision will have “significant implications,” because line items previously claimed using substitution drawback would be ineligible for direct identification drawback, and vice versa, the trade group said. CBP is also considering making all merchandise imported in any entry claimed in a drawback claim under the existing law unavailable for substitution drawback claims under the new procedures of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, it said.
An importer and domestic retailer of footwear and handbags that accepts customer returns with "no questions asked" would need to provide more information in order to meet the requirements for unused merchandise drawback claims, CBP said in a July 25 ruling. Carlo Pazolini (USA) LLC submitted the claims for unused drawback in 2013 and 2014, which were rejected by the Port of New York/New Jersey due to lack of proof about use. Pazolini protested the rejections and said that the merchandise in question showed "no evidence of use."
CBP should update its regulations to give more details about the processing of forced labor allegations under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in an opening statement at an Oct. 24 hearing on the nomination of Kevin McAleenan for CBP commissioner. The Committee's ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also sought clarity on the forced labor regulations. McAleenan said "we want to make sure we are able to apply all effective enforcement tools in the most precise and appropriate manner to this priority mission."
SAN DIEGO -- The rollout of ACE electronic foreign-trade zone capabilities set for Dec. 9 won’t include a comprehensive air split shipment filing mechanism as previously planned, CBP Cargo Security and Controls Director Jim Swanson said during the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones conference Oct. 23. “It’s going to work exactly the way it is right now,” he said. “Nobody was really ready for it, and it didn’t do quite what we wanted it to do. There were some issues with how it communicated with manifest systems.”
It’s unclear whether U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) provisions related to drawback, certificates of origin and import relief measures would spring back into force if the U.S. withdraws from NAFTA, according to a recent Q&A posted by the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. NAFTA Implementation Act Section 107 states that some CFTA provisions will remain suspended until the suspension itself is terminated. This could mean that those suspensions would, by default, remain active in any post-NAFTA world, even though Canada and the U.S. formally agreed through a January 1993 exchange of letters to broadly suspend the operation of CFTA when NAFTA took effect, with the suspension “to remain in effect for such time as the two governments are Parties to NAFTA,” the NCBFAA said.
CBP is seeking comments by Dec. 19 on an existing information collection for free entry of returned American products, it said in a notice. CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection with no change to the information collected or to the estimated burden hours associated with the collection.