Requests for extensions or closures of Temporary Importation Bonds will be deployed in ACE on Feb. 24, a CBP official said on the agency’s biweekly ACE call with the trade community on Feb. 1. While output records will mostly be affected, CBP will also be putting in a new input record to request the extension or closure, the official said. CBP will set up a daily support call following the deployment, which also includes reconciliation, drawback and liquidation. The call will be available Feb. 26 through March 2 from 2p.m. to 3 p.m., with the call-in number still unannounced. Meanwhile, CBP also is implementing recently imposed safeguard duties on residential washers and solar cells in ACE, effective Feb. 7 (see 1801230052 and 1801240036). New tariff schedule subheadings will be added in Chapter 99, as will a secondary unit of quantity for kilowatt hours in Chapter 85 so CBP can track the quota amount for solar cells and force filers to the high-quota rate once it’s filled.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP posted on Jan. 26 an updated draft of the Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) guidelines for drawback procedures under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act. The draft CATAIR is meant “to facilitate preparations for programming in advance of the forthcoming rulemaking,” CBP said. “The reader should be advised that this technical document is considered a DRAFT and is subject to revision before a final version is provided. Any decisions a reader makes based on this draft document are taken voluntarily and with the understanding that the draft may be revised,” it said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Accelerated payment for processing of drawback claims under new Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act drawback procedures will be allowed by CBP after the effective date of final regulations, a CBP spokesman said. The agency "is on track to deliver TFTEA drawback in ACE on February 24, 2018 as scheduled," he said. "In the absence of a final rule, CBP will not be granting accelerated payments for TFTEA drawback claims. Once the final rule is effective, accelerated payment will be granted and TFTEA drawback claims will be processed." The absence of accelerated payments means that the initial drawback claim liquidations could take up to a year (see 1801250034).
CBP will not use accelerated payment for processing claims under the new drawback procedures until the associated regulations become final, Sandler Travis' Michael Cerny, who chairs the Trade Support Network’s drawback working group, said in a blog post. The agency is required to begin accepting drawback claims under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act as of Feb. 24 and is in the process of issuing associated rules. "Claimants filing for drawback under the more advantageous TFTEA provisions will have to wait months, if not longer, to obtain their refunds," Cerny said.
CBP announced the availability for testing of several specific types of “dummy” entry summaries in the ACE certification environment for new drawback procedures under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, in a Jan. 18 CSMS message. The entry summaries, prepared by members of the trade community, “should be used as the underlying imports on your drawback claim,” CBP said. “These entries have been loaded in addition to the original entry submitted to the certification environment.” Entry types covered by the dummy summaries include “air certification,” “bed-in-a-bag,” “compound duty,” “generic for unused or manufacturing,” “petroleum derivatives,” “Puerto Rico,” “sought element” and “vessel.” “Each filer will initially be given a maximum of 25 entries for use for a specific entry type requested,” CBP said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP is seeking comments by March 20 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.
CBP issued a pair Federal Register notices on its previously announced Feb. 24 deadline for drawback and reconciliation in ACE. On that date, drawback and reconciliation in the legacy Automated Commercial System will be decommissioned. “All reconciliation entries” on or after Feb. 24 “must be filed in ACE regardless of whether the underlying entry was filed in ACS or ACE and regardless of whether it is a replacement, substitution or follow-up to a reconciliation entry originally filed in ACS,” CBP said. ACE will also become the only authorized system for drawback entries beginning Feb. 24, the agency said.