CBP removed a recently issued Enforce and Protect Act notice from its website because it included business confidential information that was inadvertently released, a CBP spokesperson said. The notice announced the initiation of an EAPA proceeding and the imposition of interim measures on Beanomy, IYEE Nature, Kelanch, Wakodo Household Supply, Xinshidian Trading, Zevoky, Kakaivy, Weekaly, Heniddy, Ryan James Engineering, Sunwind Trading and Anlowo after CBP found a “reasonable suspicion” that the companies are evading antidumping and countervailing duties on mattresses from China (see 2402260044).
The October 2023 customs broker licensing exam had a 34% pass rate, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee said in an issue paper released Feb. 26. It said 1,141 people took the test Oct. 25, with 932 of those taking the exam in-person at testing centers and 209 taking the exam remotely. CBP changed from five answer choices to four answer choices per question for the October 2023 exam, "to better align the CBLE with exam industry best practices," it said. The next exam was recently moved from April 24 to May 1 (see 2312120046). The issue paper was posted ahead of the COAC meeting on March 6 (see 2402260061).
CBP has released its Feb. 21 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 07), which includes the following ruling actions:
In the Feb. 21 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 57, No. 7), CBP published a proposal to revoke and modify ruling letters concerning glass containers with lids.
CBP sent a questionnaire earlier this month to solar companies asking how they're guarding against the use of forced labor in their supply chains. The agency asked about the origins of solar modules, panels and related products, according to a draft of the survey obtained by Bloomberg. CBP wants invoices and other documents from distributors, wholesalers, exporters and resellers, as well as organizational charts and locations of production facilities.
CBP plans in FY 2024 to test the ability of ACE 2.0 to issue credentials, verify the origin of the credentials, and send data to partner government agencies through "tech demos" focused on e-commerce, food safety and natural gas trade using "global interoperability standards," the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee said. The COAC, in an ACE 2.0 Working Group issue paper on Feb. 26, said that in September CBP successfully tested global verifiable credentials and decentralized identifier standards with demos of steel and pipeline oil trade (see 2309130025).
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
A CBP headquarters official, chosen to help shape national policy on de minimis, said that while the trade community welcomed the opportunity for electronic clearance of packages that require partner government agency review, importers are often not following the reasonable care standard required for Type 86 entries. The Type 86 test is for packages that are low enough value to avoid duties under the de minimis statute, but are not eligible for de minimis because they contain goods that PGAs inspect. If importers participate in the test -- and there were more than 623 million packages last fiscal year that were covered -- they must provide a 10-digit Harmonized Tarff Schedule code.
The Agricultural Marketing Service will begin with a period of soft “enforcement discretion” once its new regulations on organic import certificates take effect on March 19, but importers should nonetheless be working now to get their organic certifications as required under the rules, an AMS official said, speaking during a recent webinar.
The Federal Maritime Commission added Hede (Hong Kong) International Shipping and removed COSCO Shipping Lines (Europe) from its list of controlled carriers, the agency said in a Feb. 26 notice.