Brian Feito

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 6-12:

CBP and Food and Drug Administration officials outlined transition procedures for the June 15 ACE mandatory use date for most FDA cargo release and entry summary submissions, during a June 9 webinar conducted by the agencies and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. CBP will on June 15 begin rejecting ACE entries that are flagged for FDA but are not accompanied by partner government agency (PGA) data, a CBP official said. However, the legacy ACE remains online and available as a fallback until July 23, and CBP will handle ACS filers on a “case-by-case basis” until that date, sending error messages and reaching out to non-ACE filers to get them aboard, he said. As CBP has previously said (see 1605270002), the agency will shut off ACS on July 23 and filers will “no longer have the ACS alternative,” the official said.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 30 - June 5:

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Upcoming CBP regulations are needed to address several areas left unclear by major changes to drawback in recently enacted customs reauthorization legislation, a government official and industry executives said during a June 7 panel discussion at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference. CBP still needs to decide how to handle changes in classification that occur between entry and the filing of the drawback claim and changes to “lesser of” limitations on drawback. The overhaul, the biggest for drawback since 1930, presents opportunities but also poses challenges for both industry and the government, and more changes are on the way as drawback is automated in ACE, they said.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- A host of potential quota issues and a lack of industry testing is causing some anxiety in the trade community over the approaching July 23 deadline for filing entries and entry summaries for most remaining entry types in ACE, said industry executives speaking June 6 at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference. Mirroring concerns recently voiced by CBP officials over the July 23 mandatory use date (see 1605260009), one software developer on the panel said she expects the “hard cutover” for quota to cause more problems than were seen during the recent March 31 and May 28 mandatory use dates.

A recent deployment of changes to ACE filing requirements for the Food and Drug Administration on May 31 went smoothly, despite some concerns leading up to the deployment among the trade community, said customs brokers and software developers. Following the relatively uneventful passage of CBP’s May 28 deadline for certain cargo release entry types, import filers and developers on May 31 again reported only minor issues, with an outage that evening unrelated to the deployment and its timing coincidental, said FDA.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 23-29:

​The following appeals of Court of International Trade decisions were filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit during the week of May 16-22:

On July 23, CBP will begin requiring filing in ACE of entries and entry summaries for most remaining entry types, including entry types with quota merchandise, it said in a notice set for publication in the Federal Register (here). As of that date, ACE cargo release and entry summary will be mandatory for entry types 02, 07, 12, 21, 22, 31, 32, 34, 38, 61, 62, 63, 69 and 70, said CBP. The legacy Automated Commercial System (ACS) will no longer be available. Entry types 01, 03, 06, 11, 23, 51 and 52 are already set to become mandatory (and in some cases, already have) by that date.

The Food and Drug Administration is finalizing changes in nutrition facts labels on food and dietary supplements. Under one final rule (here), FDA is revising the information required on nutrition facts labels and change how the nutrition facts are presented. That final rule also requires that manufacturers keep records on added sugar, the amount of dietary fiber, and certain vitamin contents, and amends requirements for food for small children and pregnant women. FDA’s other final rule (here) increases recommended serving sizes to bring them into line with current eating habits, and requires an additional column of nutrition information for packages that contain more than one serving but could be consumed in one sitting. Compliance with new labeling requirements is required by July 26, 2019 for small businesses with less than $10 million per year in annual food sales, and by July 26, 2018 for all other businesses.