CBP’s import scanning should provide more benefits for Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) participants and remain risk-based, CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said Sept. 13. “C-TPAT does need some additional work,” he said during the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference in Washington. “If you’re a C-TPAT member and you’re valued and you’ve reached those top tiers, we need to enhance the benefits very much there.” Kerlikowske indicated that a risk-based scanning approach would dovetail with providing greater trusted trader benefits, and that such a method would be more realistic and efficient than a congressional mandate requiring all incoming U.S. cargo to be scanned via X-ray, which can be extended every two years with lawmakers’ approval. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson last notified Congress of such an extension in May (see 1605310028).
As implementation of core ACE capabilities nears completion, CBP and the trade community “need to keep an eye on” congressional budgets to make sure the resources are in place for improvements after 2016, said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Trade, at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference on Sept. 12 in Washington. Though completion of core ACE by the Obama administration’s December 2016 deadline is “in the bag,” there is “vast room for improvement,” Smith said. CBP and the trade community need to make sure that ACE is not only the “best of the best” single window in 2016, but continues to be going forward, she said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 22-26 in case they were missed.
CBP will make regulatory changes to reflect the increase to the de minimis level, from $200 to $800, under the new customs reauthorization law and seeks input on how to approach other agency requirements for imports below the threshold, it said in an interim final rule (here). While the de minimis changes have been in effect since March (see 1603100010), CBP's regulations listed the old dollar amount. The final rule also makes some regulatory changes related to alcohol and tobacco products as well as to the applicability of excise taxes. Comments are due Sept. 26.
ACE filers continue to face downtime and slowdown issues worse than those encountered in the legacy Automated Commercial System, and several functionalities essential to the trade community are still unavailable, including some that were available in the legacy system before it was mostly shut down July 23, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a position paper (here). “Much remains to be done” before the implementation of ACE can be declared a success, with performance of some aspects of the new electronic filing regime still lagging behind that of the ACS, it said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is continuing its push for the EU to boost its de minimis level for imports to the equivalent of the U.S. threshold of $800, a spokesperson for the USTR said in an email. “We want the EU to increase their de minimis for goods trade (currently 150 euros) to our level of $800,” the spokesperson said. Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Dan Mullaney was in Brussels last week for the 14th round of negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, where he said that a higher de minimis was an efficiency achievable through the pact.
The use of ACE by the Environmental Protection Agency will likely become mandatory in the "fall time frame at the earliest," Roy Chaudet of EPA said during a July 7 webinar about Partner Government Agencies (PGAs) and the move to ACE. That agency is running several pilots including for non-road vehicle imports and pesticide notices of arrival, ozone-depleting substances and Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) submissions (see 1606090020). "In terms of our pilots ending and our reporting requirements put in place, those will all be later this year," he said.
CBP implemented several important pieces of the customs reauthorization law during the first 100 days since enactment, CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said in an overview of the efforts (here). Since President Barack Obama signed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (see 1602240042), "CBP has been working hard to implement the law’s key provisions, with a strong focus on bolstering our agency’s trade enforcement priorities," Kerlikowske said. He pointed to recently signed withhold release orders (see 1603310034 and 1605310019) for "certain shipments of soda ash, potassium, and Stevia products made with convict and forced labor in China." Those "enforcement actions rightly place CBP at the forefront of promoting human rights, and send a powerful signal to manufacturers and producers around the world," he said. The Office of Trade also implemented "a new process for swiftly and thoroughly reviewing allegations of evasion of Antidumping/Countervailing duty laws," which "helps domestic manufacturers and companies hurt by unfair, illegal trade practices," he said. Also notable are the new Trade Enforcement Task Force (see 1605030032), an increase to the de minimis value threshold (see 1603100010) and the formal recognition of the Centers of Excellence and Expertise, he said.
The Agricultural Marketing Service issued a final rule to end a de minimis exemption from marketing order assessments on importers of cotton (here). Under the agency’s rule, importers of cotton would no longer be exempt from paying assessments when the total assessed on any entry line is $2 or less. AMS said the exemption was originally put in place because the cost of collecting assessments was sometimes greater than the amount collected, but automation and other changes have decreased collection costs. The change is effective July 15
CBP and Food and Drug Administration officials outlined transition procedures for the June 15 ACE mandatory use date for most FDA cargo release and entry summary submissions, during a June 9 webinar conducted by the agencies and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. CBP will on June 15 begin rejecting ACE entries that are flagged for FDA but are not accompanied by partner government agency (PGA) data, a CBP official said. However, the legacy ACE remains online and available as a fallback until July 23, and CBP will handle ACS filers on a “case-by-case basis” until that date, sending error messages and reaching out to non-ACE filers to get them aboard, he said. As CBP has previously said (see 1605270002), the agency will shut off ACS on July 23 and filers will “no longer have the ACS alternative,” the official said.