COAC Drops Vessel Manifest Data Confidentiality Proposal From 21CCF

The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) will not move forward with a proposal under the 21st Century Customs Framework (21CCF) to make ocean vessel manifest data automatically confidential, according to a report from the 21CCF task force released by the COAC Nov. 28. The provision is one of several listed by the task force in the report that the COAC will no longer advance after recent discussions with CBP.

“Based on discussion points with CBP and views expressed by civil society and members of Congress, COAC does not believe we should advance the proposal as part of CBP’s 21CCF package,” it said in the report, released ahead a COAC meeting scheduled for Dec. 7 (see 2211170029).

Members of Congress and groups advocating against forced labor had railed against the proposal following its incorporation in a list of proposed legislative changes advanced by the COAC to balance trade enforcement provisions in the 21CCF with trade facilitation measures (see 2210140051, 2210210065 and 2211020087). The report said accusations leveled at the COAC after the proposal became widely known were misplaced.

“Recent public reports misrepresented the COAC process, intentions, the history and the broader context of manifest confidentiality,” the report said. “COAC members and the industries we are appointed to represent abhor the use of forced labor. The individual members of the COAC do not desire to undermine the U.S. Government or civil societies efforts to end forced labor. Broad consensus exists across U.S. government, business, civil society, and elsewhere that all efforts should be pursued to prevent and remedy instances of forced labor, slavery, and human trafficking,” it said.

Rather, the proposal was intended to address “long standing concerns” about the lack of vessel manifest confidentiality relating to “diminished cargo security for controlled goods, sensitive commodities, potential tampering of goods, as well as potential commercial targeting,” the report said. More precise cargo descriptions required since the Trade Act of 2002 was enacted “are also an important concern; manufacturer and product data is often mined and used by competitors, including foreign countries, to undermine and reverse engineer supply chains,” it said.

Opposition to the proposal was based on a “misconception that the request is to somehow evade identification of goods imported using forced labor,” the report said. But “confidential treatment of manifest data in no way changes visibility or disposition of the manifest information for the government.”

Other provisions that will be stricken from the list of trade facilitation measures initially developed by the COAC include proposals to exempt Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) members from paying the merchandise processing fee (MPF); allow merchandise shipped from U.S. foreign-trade zones (FTZs) to be eligible for de minimis entry; and make the U.S. system of antidumping and countervailing duties prospective, instead of retroactive.

CBP also appears to have rejected a COAC proposal to create a framework wherein CBP would have to justify any “incremental data requests” and meet certain parameters and conditions. The report said discussions on the proposal centered on existing parameters in the current statute and concerns that the proposal could “hinder issuance of regulations.”

For all of those proposals -- with the notable exception of the proposal to make manifest data confidential -- the report said the trade community should still work to advance the proposals, even if they would no longer be included under the 21CCF.

Another proposal that the COAC no longer will push would have required CBP to share data with importers to “help eradicate and address forced labor” and “streamline an importer’s ability to begin assembling evidence to demonstrate compliance.” Concerns during discussions focused on “conflicts with Trade Secrets Act and [CBP’s] ability to provide information subject to investigation,” the report said. While the proposal no longer will be advanced as part of the 21CCF, the report recommended “continued discussion in the [COAC] Forced Labor Working Group statement of work.”