CBP is increasing enforcement of wood packaging material (WPM) treatment requirements, it said. Beginning Nov. 1, the agency will issue penalties to responsible parties for each documented wood packaging materials violation, CBP said on Sept. 25. “This is a change from the previous published threshold of 5 violations,” it said. “There will be no yearly reset for calculating repeat violations as each WPM violation may incur a penalty.”
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 following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 11-17:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 4-10:
CBP’s Office of Field Operations has tentatively come up with some “parameters” for how it will handle Section 321 clearances going forward, said Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo conveyance security and controls, at a National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference on Sept. 11. The agency has agreed on a two-track solution, allowing continued clearance in the Automated Manifest System while providing new capabilities for Section 321 in the Automated Broker Interface, he said. ABI filing will include a 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule number as a data element, with the importer of record potentially optional, he said.
The Justice Department’s recent intervention in a whistleblower case against a UK retailer that allegedly split shipments on its U.S. imports to avoid duties “sends a clear message that this behavior will not be tolerated,” said the law firm Constantine Cannon, which represents the whistleblower, in a Sept. 8 press release. The July complaint alleges that Pure Collection and its executive Samantha Harrison deliberately split large orders so their shipments to the U.S. would fall under the $200 de minimis threshold, later raised to $800, despite knowing the practice violated customs rules.
CBP and other agencies involved in trade still have some ways to go before resolving an ongoing debate on how to describe goods in Section 321 shipments, said Christa Brzozowski, deputy assistant secretary for trade and transport at the Department of Homeland Security, at the U.S. Air Cargo Industry Affairs Summit Sept. 6 in Washington. The government still needs to work through process issues related to what goods are eligible for expedited release, and what role partner government agencies (PGAs) will have in the process, before considering whether to require 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule numbers or written descriptors, she said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 28 - Sept. 3:
A former New York resident was arrested and charged with smuggling and conspiracy for an alleged scheme to import some $250 million in counterfeit footwear and apparel by way of importer identity theft, the Justice Department said in a press release. Su Ming Ling purportedly provided stolen identities to five separate customs brokers in Illinois and California to bring in 200 shipping containers of counterfeit goods from China, DOJ said.
No new lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 21-27, nor were any appeals of Court of International Trade decisions filed that week at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to the CIT and CAFC Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) filing databases.
CBP on Aug. 29 issued additional guidance on cargo affected by port closures from Hurricane Harvey. For now, nothing needs to be done for entries and entry summaries that have already been filed, even for cargo diverted to other ports. Pending entry summaries for entries already filed at affected ports should be filed at the same port, while pending entries should be filed at the new port of arrival, CBP said. In the long-term, the trade community should expect the Port of Houston and other affected ports to be closed for the “foreseeable future” and plan their shipments accordingly, said Gary Schreffler, acting chief of CBP’s Cargo Control & Release Branch, during a call held Aug. 29.