BALTIMORE -- Despite rapidly approaching deadlines for implementation of the Automated Commercial Environment by the trade community, the latest data from CBP still shows only about 10 percent of cargo release submissions are being done in ACE, said Steve Hilsen, CBP’s lead executive for the single window, at the East Coast Trade Symposium on Nov. 5. Though part of the reason for the low adoption rate is the incomplete implementation of partner government agency (PGA) requirements, there’s “a lot of cargo releases out there” that aren’t subject to PGAs, he said.
Brian Feito
Brian Feito is Managing Editor of International Trade Today, Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. A licensed customs broker who spent time at the Department of Commerce calculating antidumping and countervailing duties, Brian covers a wide range of subjects including customs and trade-facing product regulation, the courts, antidumping and countervailing duties and Mexico and the European Union. Brian is a graduate of the University of Florida and George Mason University. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2012.
BALTIMORE -- CBP is working to ensure that efforts to stem illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud comport with mandates to streamline border processes and don’t impose unreasonable burdens on the trade community, said Jeffrey Nii, director of the agency’s Interagency Collaboration Division, at the East Coast Trade Symposium on Nov. 5.
BALTIMORE -- CBP will no longer allow substantial changes to Automated Commercial Environment filing requirements for the three partner government agencies (PGAs) set for full implementation on Feb. 28, said Brenda Smith, CBP assistant commissioner-international trade, at a press conference held Nov. 4 at CBP’s East Coast Trade Symposium. However, the agency may still have to implement fixes for bugs and broken policies, she said. An official from one of those agencies, the Food and Drug Administration, later said changes may still be necessary to correct issues or account for new deployments in ACE that may affect FDA.
BALTIMORE -- CBP is pressing the countries that have signed customs mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) with the U.S. to keep up their end of the bargain by providing agreed-upon benefits to members of the Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism, said Todd Owen, assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Field Operations. So far, the 10 countries that have currently signed MRAs are not delivering on their guarantees, so CBP is meeting with their customs agencies on a “senior level” to “reopen dialogue on promises that were made,” said Owen, speaking during CBP’s East Coast Trade Symposium on Nov. 4.
BALTIMORE -- CBP’s rewrite of its Part 111 customs broker regulations is again on hold until the agency completes regulatory changes required for implementation of the Automated Commercial Environment, said CBP Assistant Commissioner Brenda Smith at the CBP East Coast Trade Symposium on Nov. 4. The effort on broker regulations involves many of the same resources as the ACE regulatory changes, currently CBP’s top priority, meaning a proposed rule on Part 111 is at least six months away, she said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 26 - Nov. 1:
CBP should “lock down” Automated Commercial Environment business rules, implementation guides, and record layouts for all partner government agencies (PGAs), allowing no additional changes prior to the February 2016 ACE mandatory use date in order to give filers time to implement and test PGA programming, said the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) in a recommendation adopted at the group’s Oct. 29 meeting. “The agencies have had enough time to finalize their layouts,” said the recommendation, put forward by the COAC One U.S. Government at the Border (1USG) committee. “Importers and filers need to be afforded the same courtesy, in terms of having adequate time to complete and test their own programming.”
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 19-25:
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Several bills in Congress aimed at regulating the negotiation of port labor contracts are not necessary, and would only complicate a relationship on the East Coast that hasn’t seen a strike or slowdown in 38 years, said U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) Executive Vice President Tom Simmers at the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade Northeast Trade Symposium on Oct. 27. Though industry groups have raised "rational" concerns about the effect of slowdowns and strikes caused by port labor negotiations, the answer "lies in what we've been doing for four decades," said Simmers.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is moving forward with changes to its Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection (AQI) fees, and will soon publish a final rule in the Federal Register to implement fee increases for certain transportation modes and a new fee for treatment services, it said (here). The final rule will also remove caps on fees for vessels and railcars, and increase the caps on fees for trucks with transponders. According to APHIS' publication schedule, the new fees will take effect on Dec. 28, though the agency will allow for a staged implementation of the treatment fee over the next five years, it said in the final rule (here).