CBP posted a new chapter of the CBP and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) for drawback entry summary. The new CATAIR chapter (here) "is intended to provide the conventional trade interface information for the ACE-version of a Drawback Entry Summary filing," it said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for 2015 in case they were missed.
Treasury’s Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is seeking to collect information to verify claims for drawback of the federal excise tax for items--"generally nonbeverage products"--brought into the U.S. mainland from Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands (here). Treasury will submit the information request to the Office of Management and Budget for review and clearance.
The broken piece of a screen printing machine is ineligible for drawback due to a lack of information on the duty paid related to the specific part, said CBP in a Oct. 9 ruling (here). While the importer, CCL Tube, subsequently provided more information on the imported components, "CBP is not required to undertake additional appraisement procedures in order to ascertain the value or duty paid on component parts," said the agency in HQ H259469. CBP's ruling was in response to a further review of protest request from CCL.
Provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that may force the U.S. to make major changes to how it assesses the merchandise processing fee (MPF) is getting attention on Capitol Hill, a Congressional staffer said. Article 2.15 of the recently agreed text, which still requires approval from Congress, provides that "no party shall levy fees and charges on or in connection with importation or exportation on an ad valorem basis." MPF, which is currently charged at an ad valorem rate of 0.3464% on formal entries, with per entry minimums and maximums, would have to be converted into a flat fee in order to comply, said one staffer.
Lawmakers finished up work on a conference version of long-debated customs reauthorization legislation that combines the underlying concepts of the Senate- and House-proposed customs bills, said Conference Committee members on Dec. 9 (here). Notably, the compromise legislation (here) would impose the ENFORCE Act's firm deadlines on CBP to investigate claims of antidumping and countervailing duty evasion, and would require new regulations on customs broker identification of importers, under threat of penalty. A new provision in the legislation -- absent from either chamber's original bill -- would hold CBP to stricter deadlines for reliquidating entries. The bill could go to a vote on the House floor as early as Dec. 11, a congressional staffer said. The lawmakers also released a summary (here) and joint explanatory statement (here) on the bill's provisions.
CBP is requesting comments by Feb. 1 on an existing information collection for protests. CBP proposes (here) to extend the expiration date of this information collection without a change to the burden hours or information collected.
The Treasury Department published its fall 2015 regulatory agenda for CBP (here), which lists no new trade-related rulemakings. The agenda lists Treasury's CBP rulemakings that are pending at the proposed, interim final, final, and completed stages, as well as rulemakings that are long-term actions. The agenda lists the regulation title; past regulation(s), if any; the timeframe for the next regulatory action(s), if any; a brief description of the regulation; and a contact party name and telephone number. The Department of Homeland Security also issued its spring 2015 regulatory agenda for CBP (see 1511200014).
CBP headquarters processed customs ruling requests related to tariff classification and marking issues within about 265 days, the lengthiest average processing time among ruling categories, according to CBP ruling statistics for fiscal year 2015. Headquarters processing times vary "based on a number of factors including the nature of the ruling or decision, when complete information is presented, whether other rulings have to be modified or revoked, and the presence of any pending court cases," said a CBP spokeswoman who provided the statistics.
CBP is requesting comments by Jan. 4 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.