Brian Feito

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 9-15:

The recently increased $800 de minimis limit is causing a shift in business practices for brokers and importers, and raising questions and concerns over a growing number of low value shipments, said customs brokers and importers in recent interviews. Some in the trade community still await guidance on how to proceed with low-value shipments regulated by agencies other than CBP. There is also some concern the higher limit could cause more importers to break up their shipments to avoid the entry process and associated duties, customs brokers said.

CBP’s June 15 mandatory use date for filing electronic entries and entry summaries in ACE is tight, leaving little time to implement the latest FDA changes to its ACE programming and smooth out remaining issues, said customs brokers and software developers shortly after the agency announced the deadline. As detailed in a Federal Register notice (here), CBP will as of June 15 require filing in ACE of FDA entries and entry summaries under entry types 01, 03, 06, 11, 23, 51 and 52, the Automated Commercial System “will no longer be a CBP-authorized [electronic system] for purposes of processing these electronic filings,” said the agency. Though CBP said it will monitor implementation, CBP should ease in enforcement to give the trade community time to adjust, said one broker.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 2-8:

The Food and Drug Administration is placing new restrictions on cigars, electronic cigarettes, pipe tobacco and other tobacco products, bringing them under the scope of its tobacco regulations alongside cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, it said in a final rule (here). E-cigarettes, cigars (including premium cigars), pipe tobacco, nicotine gels, hookah tobacco, and nicotine dissolvables will face requirements including registration, FDA review, and health warning labels.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 25 - May 1:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 18-24:

NEW YORK – Simply getting caught up in one of CBP’s new antidumping and countervailing duty evasion investigations could prove a death knell for small importers with even the best of intentions, said a lawyer who represents importers during a seminar held on April 22 by the Customs and International Trade Bar Association. The low bar set for beginning investigations and imposing provisional duties, which could trigger higher collateral requirements from the importer’s surety, makes it a risky proposition for any small importer to bring in anything from China subject to an AD/CVD case, said David Forgue of Barnes Richardson during a panel discussion on the CBP’s new anti-evasion regime.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Import filers could be in for an eventful summer, with ACE system slowdowns and CBP communication problems compounding problems related to an already crowded slate of ACE deadlines, said several software developers and a customs broker during the annual conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America on April 19. After a slow implementation process over nearly a decade and a relatively successful transition for entry summary on March 31 (see 1604050034), the pace is set to increase markedly as 19 PGAs join the two already online at as yet undetermined dates.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Filing of Food and Drug Administration entries in the ACE continues its rapid rise, with the latest data from the agency showing a “high percentage” of filers using ACE and the number of entries filed in the system “drastically” increasing since January, said Dominic Veneziano, director of FDA’s Division of Import Operations, at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference on April 19.