Brian Feito

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

Filers participating in the upcoming Consumer Product Safety Commission pilot on electronic filing of certificates of compliance will have a “batch filing” option that will allow them to upload multiple certificates at once into a “certificate registry” directly from their internal systems, said Carol Cave, CPSC director of import surveillance, during a March 26 webinar.

The Food and Drug Administration will begin a pilot on July 1 to test filing in the Automated Commercial Environment, said Domenic Veneziano, FDA director of import operations, during a March 24 webinar (here). The pilot will identify any issues with the use of ACE to file and release FDA-regulated entries in advance of the Nov. 1 deadline for mandatory filing and cargo release, said Veneziano. CBP expects to issue a Federal Register notice in April or May to provide details on the pilot, such as eligible commodities and ports, and request participation from industry, said Veneziano and CBP’s Elizabeth McQueen, who leads CBP’s International Trade Data System branch.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 16-22:

A new Consumer Product Safety Commission trusted trader program could be in the offing as the agency moves cautiously toward electronic filing of certificates of compliance, said CPSC Commissioner Joseph Mohorovic during a March 19 meeting with the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. However, any CPSC trusted trader program must overcome the familiar hurdle of providing enough benefits to importers, said NCBFAA representatives at the meeting.

A recent court decision holding the owner of apparel importer Trek Leather responsible for his company’s negligent omissions on entry documentation would subject import compliance managers to “massive penalties,” casting the entire importing industry into upheaval, said the American Association of Exporters and Importers in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court. The amicus brief, filed on March 16 by John Peterson of Neville Peterson on behalf of AAEI, argues that the Supreme Court should hear the case and overturn the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s ruling.

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

The Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to test out a “streamlined approach” to filing electronic certificates of compliance in its upcoming pilot program, said Carol Cave, director of CPSC’s Office of Import Surveillance and Inspection, during a webinar on March 12. Agency officials envision a “certificate registry,” where full certificates of compliance containing all required data elements would be filed in advance of entry, said Cave. At time of entry, importers and brokers would then only have to provide a certificate number generated by the registry that would reference the full certificate, she said.

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

An importer of branded merchandise cannot use transaction value as a method of appraisement because a distribution agreement allows the related foreign seller to direct the importer to remove out-of-season merchandise from its inventory, said CBP in a valuation ruling dated Nov. 17. Although the unnamed importer claimed that, in practice, the seller never forces it to remove old merchandise, the agreement clearly gives the seller that ability, said the agency in ruling HQ 038381 (here). Additionally, imprecisely-allocated brand protection fees paid by the importer to the seller mean CBP is unable to determine the fees’ dutiable value, also precluding use of transaction value, it said.