Brian Feito

The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America recently called on CBP to address several holes that still remain in ACE. “While CBP has made great strides over the last few years in development of ACE, we are still in need of additional critical development to make ACE functional,” the trade group said in a white paper. An attached “Priority List” lays out the specific needs of the trade community and where CBP is in addressing them. The group raised similar issues in a Feb. 9 letter to Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner in the CBP Office of Trade, obtained by International Trade Today

No new lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 12-18.

CBP’s use of audits and other enforcement tools has grown increasingly coordinated and targeted in the years since passage of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, customs consultants from KPMG said during a webinar on Feb. 13. The passage of TFTEA marked the beginning of a “different era” than that launched by the Customs Modernization Act in 1993, with the pendulum “completely swung” from informed compliance to enforcement around priority trade issues identified in the new law, they said.

CBP looks set to take a wide open approach to electronic filing of Section 321 entries, with a “range of options” that allow filers to “do whatever works best for their business model,” said Michael Mullen, executive director of the Express Association of America, in an interview. Clearance off manifest would likely continue, using an item descriptor to identify cargo, with electronic filing expanded to other modes. CBP will also likely allow Section 321 entries in the Automated Broker Interface using the 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule number, Mullen said.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 5-11:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 29 - Feb. 4:

A federal court in Chicago ordered a freight forwarder to refund $5,838,992.21 in unpaid antidumping and countervailing duties to Union Pacific after finding in December that it improperly kept payments intended to be used as cash deposits (see 1712210020). Though Pactrans was not a licensed broker, a power of attorney signed by Union Pacific created a fiduciary duty on the part of the forwarder to ensure the cash deposits were transmitted to CBP by the broker, the Northern Illinois U.S. District Court had said (see 1712210020).

The Food and Drug Administration on Jan. 31 began accepting applications to participate in its new trusted trader program for food imports, it said in a constituent update. Importers that meet the Voluntary Qualified Importer Program’s eligibility criteria may now apply on the FDA website, with applications due by May 31, FDA said. FDA’s application requires information identifying the VQIP importer, Foreign Supplier Verification Program documentation, filer or broker contact information, contact information for the foreign supplier and a list of foods the importer would like to benefit from VQIP.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 22-28:

NAFTA talks progressed during the sixth round of negotiations in Montreal, but much work remains to be done before the U.S., Canada and Mexico reach a new agreement, trade officials from the three countries said following the conclusion of the round on Jan. 29. Negotiators completed a new anti-corruption chapter, and made “tremendous progress” on chapters on customs and trade facilitation, telecommunications, digital trade, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures, Mexican Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal said during a joint press conference at the end of the talks.