No Plans to Extend USMCA 'Restrained Enforcement' Period Beyond Jan. 1, CBP Official Says

There are no imminent plans to continue a “restrained enforcement” period after Jan. 1 for some USMCA requirements, said Queena Fan, director of the CBP USMCA Center. Fan, who said she began in that role about two weeks ago, spoke Nov. 4 during National Association for Foreign-Trade Zones virtual conference. “As of right now, plan still is Jan. 1,” she said. Still, “I'm not saying it's set in stone” if other issues come up and industry concerns should be brought to CBP. The agency is using a period of enforced compliance that ends Jan. 1 for some USMCA provisions, while the auto sector has a longer period of informed compliance that is set to end July 1, 2021.

CBP is still trying to figure out exactly what its enforcement posture will look like after Jan. 1, Fan said. “Is it a gentle nudge into it, where all we are doing is [Customs Form] 28s, 29s, or is it a really bigger thing where we have our full team of auditors out doing the verifications and really hitting home on that?” she said. The agency is still considering what the “magnitude” will be, she said.

The presidential election result is unlikely to have much of an impact on how CBP works on USMCA, said Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls. “It's in statute already,” he said. “There may be specific interpretive things that may change depending on which administration is in power, and there may be focused enforcement in different areas depending on which administration.” While it's possible USMCA technical corrections legislation could be affected by the elections, CBP remains in a “holding pattern” and “we do what we're told by the Congress and the administration,” Fan said.

Record-keeping requirements for FTZ operators could eventually see a change due to USMCA, Swanson said. “I think there's going to be some changes to record-keeping,” he said. “As we move into some things, I think we will see record-keeping and inventory issues start to crop up. I don't know if that's occurred yet, but I anticipate we may see some, or at the very least questions around record-keeping and what you should be looking at.” At the same time, “I'm not saying I'm going to impose any new record-keeping requirements,” but “it's an area where we need to interface,” he said. Swanson plans to work closely with the USMCA Center staff to “identify if they're maintaining” inventory and record-keeping requirements to show a link from importer entries “if there are things that need to be done back to the origination and back to the zone.”

Swanson said CBP is updating its business document for changes related to e214. “Anything we identify here that impacts operations, I intend to put into that document,” including “USMCA eligibility and processing and those kinds of things,” he said. The business document “may not impact your everyday lives, but at the very least it's a place where we can go and find it.” CBP is also making sure the e214 business document lines up with the cargo release business document, as well as the entry summary business document that the Office of Trade also is updating, Swanson said. An update to the FTZ manual may also begin in the next year and “USMCA will be a big part of that,” he said.

Swanson said CBP will closely monitor the economic impacts on foreign-trade zones that are a result of USMCA. “What we really want to do is allow you to operate within the law” and “not cause economic impact by something we did,” he said. “If it's something that the law did, it's a different story.”