CBP Proposes Regulatory Changes for Electronic Liquidation Notifications
CBP is proposing to revise its regulations to allow for official liquidation notices to be posted electronically to the agency's website, CBP said in a notice (here). The proposed rule changes would mean that notices of liquidations, liquidation suspensions and liquidation extensions are no longer posted at ports, CBP said. The changes were largely expected, though as an interim final rule rather than a proposed rule, ahead of the transition date for liquidation in ACE (see 1608170055). The agency recently delayed the mandatory use of post-release processing, including liquidation, in ACE to January (see 1609280072).
Currently, "notices of liquidation for formal entry, including notices of liquidation by operation of law, are physically posted in the customhouse or station at the port of entry on CBP Form 4333, and this physical posting is deemed the legal evidence of liquidation and provides the date of liquidation," CBP said. The proposed changes would replace the physical posting requirements. The changes should save time for both the trade and CBP, it said. Knowing the exact date of liquidation is important for protest purposes and "CBP estimates that protesters or their representatives take 2,500 trips to U.S. customhouses or stations each year to physically view the official bulletin notice," it said. "In addition, physically posting the bulletin notice of liquidation, repeated at each customhouse every week, is laborious and time-consuming."
CBP also proposes to end its practice of mailing paper notices of extension or suspension, it said. "This rule would not change the method in which CBP provides electronic courtesy notices of liquidation, reliquidation, extension, or suspension, but it would discontinue the practice of mailing any paper notices," the agency said. CBP estimated it mailed an average of 23,500 paper notices of liquidation and reliquidation and 3,100 notices of extension and suspension to importers. CBP requested comments on the proposal by Nov. 14.
Among other improvements, the electronic bulletin would "provide benefits of eased access, relatively quicker notification, and extended viewing to importers," CBP said. For example, importers and their agents would be able to view the notices "simultaneously instead of individually as they currently do through paper notices," it said. The notices would also be available online for more than a year before specific requests to the ports of entry would be required for access, it said. CBP would update its liquidation information daily, it said. There's been discussion of moving the bulletin notices to an electronic format for several years (see 13050924).
CBP also proposes to make the information more easily searchable. "The electronic bulletin notices will be searchable on the CBP website by using two or more" of 10 data elements, such as importer of record number, port of entry or liquidation dates, it said. "For example, conducting a search by entering the port of entry and selecting a posted date would return results for all notices posted for that port for that date." The search results may differ based on the data provided, the agency said. "Searching with the fields specific to an interested party, such as entry number or importer of record number, will return more targeted results," CBP said. "When viewing the results of a search, importer of record numbers will not be displayed on the CBP website. CBP may add more search fields as additional capabilities are deployed."
Among proposed "technical changes" is an update to the regulations for deemed liquidations meant to better align the regulatory language with a law passed in 2004. The current regulations say an entry may only be deemed liquidated based on the rate, duty, value, quantity and amount of duties asserted by the importer at the time of entry, CBP said. The change would "provide that entries are deemed liquidated based on the rate of duty, value, quantity, and amount of duties asserted by the importer of record regardless of when asserted."
(Federal Register 10/14/16)