CBP to Release Process Soon for Accelerated Payment Drawback Claims

CBP is nearly ready to release a new process for accelerated payments of drawback claims while reviews of limited modifications of manufacturing drawback are ongoing, Comstock & Theakston said in a blog post. "CBP can confirm that a process is being developed to address limited modifications and will be issued soon," an agency spokeswoman said. This process "will be important for filers who have significant refund amounts waiting to be distributed," Comstock said.

Claims may still be filed in ACE in order to "protect claim dates while we wait for the privilege applications and limited modifications to be approved," the company said. "Once the approvals are received from CBP, we will reach out to the drawback specialists in the appropriate drawback office to allow us to modify the claims accordingly for processing. Unfortunately, despite efficiencies that were suggested by the trade in meetings prior to the transition to ACE, this is the process that we have to operate in at this time."

There remain some other pieces of drawback under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act that need to be figured out, Comstock said. "One of those pieces deals with TFTEA claim reviews," the company said. "We have heard from CBP that they will be issuing notices through CBP Form 28s, with expected responses to be completed with a CBP Form 29. We continue to receive questions through email and sometimes via the postal service, but we have not yet encountered a CBP Form 28 request for drawback at this point. Claimants should look to their ACE portal account periodically to determine if they have received one of these requests. We will be working with CBP to ensure that the transmittal of these forms is communicated to the claimants as well as the drawback broker on file so that everyone is aware that a response will be required."