The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 25 - May 1:
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.
Now that all of the industry-focused Centers of Excellence and Expertise are fully operational, members of the Importer Self Assessment and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism programs should get a "higher level of service," the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) Trade Modernization Subcommittee said in a list of draft recommendations (here). The recommendation is among a wide range of recommendations planned for discussion at the COAC meeting on April 27 (see 1604250011). CBP's treatment of trusted traders should include "enhanced communication, accessibility and responsiveness (including updates and trends to increase or maintain compliance) with their National Account Manager (NAM) or other Center representative," the subcommittee said.
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Big changes are on the way for protest filing and reconciliation as part of the deployment of ACE post-summary capabilities currently set for October, said Celeste Catano of software developer Kewill during the annual conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America on April 19. Alongside new ACE systems for liquidation and drawback, changes to how protests are filed will allow lawyers to submit and keep track of protests, while increased automation of the reconciliation process will make life easier for brokers in several ways, said Catano.
CBP laid out plans for protest filings other post-release processing within ACE as part of a presentation at the Trade Support Network plenary session (here). The electronic mechanism for protest submissions is hoped to allow for broader trade participation and "seamless movement of work that can be equally effective when used at a port or nationwide at a" Center of Excellence and Expertise, said CBP. A deployment date for protests capabilities within ACE isn't yet certain, according to CBP's ACE deployment schedule (here). CBP posted the presentation and additional materials for the TSN session April 5-7 (here).
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 29 - March 4 in case they were missed.
The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (here), signed into law Feb. 24, includes an overhaul of current law on drawback, including provisions for substitute drawback at the eight-digit level and a uniform five-year deadline for claims. It also increases the de minimis limit to $800, exempts container residue from duties, and eliminates an exemption from import bans on goods produced with forced labor. Finally, the law holds CBP to stricter reliquidation timelines, and fixes legislation enacted last year that would have resulted in higher tariffs on recreational performance outerwear.
Changes to CBP's regulations for the de minimis threshold will be the first regulatory undertaking for the agency as it begins to implement the new customs reauthorization law (see 1602250021), said Maria Luisa Boyce, CBP’s senior advisor for trade engagement, who discussed the law on a Feb. 26 conference call. While the de minimis changes will be moving quickly in order to meet the Congressional timeline, there's still a number of decisions to be made and CBP said it planned to further discuss the issue with industry the following week.
CBP plans to address illegal steel imports from China through some "enhanced enforcement measures," the White House said in a report that touted the Obama Administration record on trade enforcement (here). The White House released the report in conjunction with President Barack Obama's signing of customs reauthorization legislation on Feb. 24 (see 1602240042). Among other efforts, CBP will require live entry for high risk steel shipments, meaning "all entry documents and duties" are to be "provided before cargo is released by CBP into U.S. commerce," said the White House.
CBP is extending the comment period by March 23 on an existing information collection for declaration for free entry of returned American products. CBP proposes (here) to extend the expiration date of this information collection without a change to the burden hours or information collected.
Akin Gump posted a summary of some of the major parts of customs reauthorization legislation (here) that was recently passed by Congress and is expected to be signed by President Barack Obama (see 1602120029). The summary includes sections on new penalties for customs brokers, changes to drawback procedures, intellectual property rights protections and information requirements for importers of record. The outline also includes information on potentially quickly moving changes to de minimis levels, which "shall apply with respect to articles entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after the 15th day after the date of the enactment."