CBP will not move forward with plans for a wide-ranging reorganization of its ACE customer support office after receiving negative feedback from the trade community, said Steve Zaccaro, chief of the agency’s Client Representative Branch, on a conference call held Oct. 4. The agency will reassign some software vendors, importers and brokers currently assigned to overburdened client representatives, but the “vast majority” will not be affected by the changes, 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.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is amending the list of goods from China newly subject to 10 percent Section 301 tariffs to remove frozen salmon and make conforming changes to subheadings covering wood. Effective Sept. 24, USTR is removing from the list subheadings 0304.81.10 and 0304.81.50, which cover frozen salmon, in order “to account fully for the extensive public comments and testimony previously provided” in the Section 301 investigation.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is finalizing a change to its procedures for setting fruit and vegetable import requirements. Under the final rule, APHIS will no longer go through a normal rulemaking process for changes to import requirements. Instead, the agency will simply publish a notice in the Federal Register advising the public of the change. APHIS will still give the public a chance to comment before changes are made through publication of a “pest risk analysis” document detailing the agency’s scientific rationale. The final rule takes effect Oct. 15.
The Federal Trade Commission has begun a “broad review” of its enforcement actions for false “Made in USA” claims, which could take a stronger enforcement stance in the future, including monetary penalties and admissions of wrongdoing, said FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Chairman Joe Simons in a statement released Sept. 12 in the wake of settlements with two importers.
No lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 3-9.
Importers lauded the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s proposal to create a de minimis exemption from Lacey Act declaration requirements, but called for the agency to allow flexibility in how products may qualify, in recently submitted comments on the APHIS proposed rule. But commenters criticized a proposed requirement for declarations to be submitted within three days after importation, instead urging APHIS to harmonize the timeline with other agencies’ import requirements.
The government is opposing a bid by a group of importers to have CBP issue interim drawback regulations that would allow the agency to begin processing claims under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, according to recent court filings. Though those importers hope interim calculation procedures can be issued as soon as October (see 1808280037), the government said the drawback calculation provisions are “not easily divorced” from the rest of a recent proposed rule, and urged the Court of International Trade to let the rulemaking process proceed normally.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is set make changes to the process for requesting exclusions from Section 232 tariffs and quotas on steel and aluminum products. The interim final rule creates procedures for rebutting objections to exclusion requests, clarifies the criteria BIS reviews when deciding whether to grant or deny requests, and provides for broader exclusion requests based on ranges or dimensions within the same Harmonized Tariff Schedule code.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 27 - Sept. 2:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 20-26: