Treasury Dept. Regulatory Agenda Mentions Rules on Bond Regulations, Express Mail Fees

The Treasury Department published its fall 2019 regulatory agenda for CBP. The agenda includes a new rulemaking that would amend CBP's regulations to get rid of the “onerous and inefficient paper-based bond application and approval processes," it said. The agency will try to issue a proposed rulemaking rule by March next year, it said. "Moving forward, the proposed amendments would implement the successful National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) test for electronic bonds ('eBonds')," it said. "The proposed amendments would require all bonds to be filed by the sureties using an electronic data interchange (EDI) or e-mail."

Another new rule mentioned involves plans "to add a new fee for Inbound Express Mail pertaining to the processing of Inbound Express Mail by the United States Postal Service (USPS) and CBP." That rule is a result of the STOP Act, or Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act, signed by President Donald Trump in October 2018 (see 1810240052). CBP is targeting November to issue an interim final rule, it said. Also planned for November is an interim final rule on "statement processing and Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) to reflect that CBP will identify final statements as paid upon the completion of the funds transfer," it said.

Some items were also moved from the agenda onto the "Long-Term Actions" list. Among those rulemakings now on that list is a proposal for updates and modifications to the (a)(1)(A) list of records required for the entry of merchandise, a final rule involving NAFTA rules of origin for spices (see 1607070034) and a final rule on pesticide imports.

The agenda lists Treasury's CBP rulemakings that are pending at the proposed, interim final, final and completed stages, as well as rulemakings that are long-term actions. The agenda lists the regulation title; past regulation(s), if any; the time frame for the next regulatory action(s), if any; a brief description of the regulation; and a contact party name and telephone number.

Agenda Highlights

Highlights of Treasury's CBP rulemakings are below. New items are marked with an asterisk (*).