The Court of International Trade denied Seko Customs Brokerage's bids for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against its temporary suspension from the Entry Type 86 Test and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism programs. Judge Claire Kelly found Seko already received all the relief it sought when it was conditionally reinstated into the programs and told why it was originally suspended.
A coalition of business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the E-Merchants Trade Council, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Express Association of America, is pushing back against the de minimis legislation that was approved in the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this year, arguing that it would be "a massive cost to the federal government," shift trade to the mail, and create congestion at airports and a wave of abandoned packages.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The Coalition to Close the De Minimis Loophole on July 23 sent a letter to President Joe Biden emphasizing what they said are the continued dangers posed by the unchecked flow of unexamined small packages imported into the U.S.
Starting at 5 a.m. EDT on July 25, CBP will require importers and brokers to include an estimated date of arrival data element for all entry Type 86 submissions in ACE, according to a July 24 CBP message. CBP will host an online post-deployment support call for trade users. The call will occur via Microsoft Teams on July 30 at 1 p.m. EDT. Technical questions related to this update should be sent to a user's assigned client representative. Other questions related to cargo control and release should be directed to CREM@cbp.dhs.gov.
CBP plans to enforce the $800 daily aggregated limit for de minimis shipments as a new functionality of the ACE platform.
Industry players and a law professor argued that the International Trade Commission's power to stop imports that are found to be infringing on domestic patents has become a form of blackmail by foreign companies against domestic companies, and that its original reason for being is no longer true.
Minsu Fang, a Chinese national, was indicted for allegedly conspiring to import what the U.S. government believes to be "the largest amount of fentanyl precursors found in the Southern District of Texas and one of the largest in the country," DOJ announced July 22.
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CBP will deploy on Sept. 29 a new ACE functionality to enforce the $800 daily aggregated limit for de minimis shipments, it said in a CSMS message. The “enhancement will automate the enforcement of the Section 321 requirements by implementing a validation in ACE to ensure that an appropriate party does not receive Section 321 clearance for more than an aggregated value of $800 in shipments on a given day,” CBP said in its most recent ACE development schedule (see 2407020007). “CBP will publish an information notice with more details soon,” it said.