CBP on 'Same Page' With COAC Concerns Over Rollout of Risk-Based AD/CVD Bonding, Leonard Says

CBP is “largely on the same page” with the cautious approach to the rollout of risk-based bonding recommended by the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, said John Leonard, CBP executive director-trade policy and programs, at a COAC meeting held Aug. 21 in Buffalo, New York.

At that meeting, the COAC formally recommended delaying implementation “for at least 90 days” of the risk-based bonding program to collect single transaction bonds on antidumping and countervailing duty shipments from new importers, as required by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. In documents released ahead of the meeting, the COAC had expressed concern that CBP might implement the bonding requirements as soon as September (see 1908160030).

The delay would allow CBP to “finalize the policy and the functionality to build a bond query for the trade to identify a new importer that is required to post STBs prior to cargo release,” COAC said in its recommendations. CBP should also complete “desk-top exercises to determine the impact this new model will have on the trade,” the COAC said.

Once the policy is finalized, the trade community will also need “ample time” to test new ACE functionalities in the certification environment before full implementation. The COAC recommended that CBP “develop an edit in ABI which identifies a new importer for this policy and provides a message to the filer.”

In comments at the meeting, Cindy Allen of FedEx Trade Networks stressed the importance of push notifications rather than queries as CBP rolls out the new bonding program. Querying information before a shipment comes in would be very difficult in high-volume environments, she said. “When we tend to do massive bulk queries, it slows the entire ACE system down,” Allen said.

CBP’s Valerie Neuhart said the agency would note the concern, and make sure it’s considered as CBP moves forward with its development of the risk-based bonding program.