Brian Feito

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 12-18:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Dec. 15 affirmed a lower court ruling ordering the government to cover attorney’s fees and costs paid by International Custom Products in one of several contentious cases involving a CBP ruling letter improperly revoked without notice and comment (here). The decision likely brings to a close a series of cases dating back to 2005 on a CBP notice of action reclassifying ICP’s white sauce (see 06030725), which led to a 2,400% duty increase and put the company out of business (see 12121239).

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 5-11:

CBP is amending its regulations to allow for official liquidation notices to be posted electronically to the agency's website, in a final rule (here). Effective Jan. 14, notices of liquidations, reliquidations, liquidation suspensions and liquidation extensions will no longer be posted at ports, CBP said. Instead, CBP will post electronic notices of liquidation, reliquidation, suspension and extension on its website in a searchable database.

CBP will expand eligibility for filing post-summary corrections to new entry types, including quota, foreign-trade zone, government and warehouse entries, warehouse withdrawals and temporary importations under bond, it said (here). The agency will also require filers submitting PSCs that increase liability for duties, taxes and fees to deposit those additional duties, taxes and fees within three business days of filing the PSC, with no additional PSCs allowed until the duties, taxes and fees are deposited, it said. CBP is also making several other changes to the program, as well as to the periodic monthly summary test, it said. The changes take effect Jan. 14.

CBP will require filing in ACE beginning on Jan. 14 for drawback and duty deferral entries (here) and reconciliation entries (here), it said. As of that date, filing in the Automated Commercial System for drawback, duty deferral and reconciliation will no longer be available, it said. CBP had previously mentioned the drawback deadline, and said it is targeting mid-January for other post-release functions including reconciliation, liquidation, duty deferral, collections and statements (see 1612010041).

Coming pre-departure electronic manifest filing requirements will make life easier for exporters with consolidated shipments, said Jim Swanson, director of cargo controls at CBP’s Office of Field Operations, at the East Coast Trade Symposium on Dec. 2. Getting shipment data earlier in the supply chain will allow CBP to target shipments before they are packed into containers, saving exporters the expense of having containers holding their shipment unpacked so CBP can look at an unrelated shipment, he said. Pre-departure manifest filing could also make “Option 4” post-departure filing in the Automated Export System an easier proposition for CBP to swallow, he said.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 28 - Dec. 4:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 21-27:

The Food and Drug Administration is adopting the flexible approach urged by industry for filing in ACE of some data elements that may not be known at time of entry, in its final rule setting ACE filing requirements (here). Data elements for active pharmaceutical ingredients will remain optional, and the agency will continue to allow for a “UNK” intended use code where the intended use code is unknown at time of entry, the final rule said. However, FDA declined to allow more time for implementation of new ACE requirements, setting an effective date of Dec. 29 despite calls to allow several months for implementation.