Brian Feito

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 10-16:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 3-9:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 26 - July 2:

A Chinese garlic exporter appealed the dismissal of its racketeering lawsuit against its Chinese competitors and their U.S. representatives. Harmoni International says a U.S. law firm, a New Mexico garlic farmer and others involved in the garlic trade with China are conspiring to fraudulently obtain lower antidumping duty rates while inflating Harmoni’s (see 1603100018). Though charges of racketeering were dismissed in Los Angeles federal court in November, the District Court recently allowed that part of the case to proceed to the Ninth Circuit, where Harmoni filed its appeal on June 29.

CBP is currently in the midst of drafting regulatory requirements for broker validation of importer powers of attorney, said Julia Peterson, chief of CBP’s broker management branch, during a June 26 webinar. Required by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, the new regulations will have to pass muster with the Trump administration executive order requiring the repeal of two regulations for every one issued, but “I think we have a path,” Peterson said. Though she couldn’t give a date, there’s a “good shot” the proposed regulations could be available in the next six to nine months, Peterson said.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 19-25:

AUSTIN, Texas -- CBP remains committed to implementing drawback changes in ACE by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act’s February 2018 deadline, but contentious issues remain as the agency considers concurrent regulatory changes to its drawback program that are required by the same date, government officials and industry representatives said at the American Association of Exporters and Importers (AAEI) annual conference on June 21.

AUSTIN, Texas -- CBP will soon deploy several improvements to its Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program, including clearer questions on C-TPAT questionnaires and a return to a relationship-based approach between C-TPAT specialists and the companies they validate, said Liz Schmelzinger, director of C-TPAT at CBP, at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference on June 22. The agency is also working to fix problems with its cost-benefit data on C-TPAT membership detailed in a recent Government Accountability Office report, she said.

AUSTIN, Texas -- CBP will announce in the “coming weeks” a new strategy to address the recent explosion of e-commerce imports, said Acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference on June 21. The new approach will combine engagement and education of the trade community, and in particular small importers, with internal changes that will help ports deal with surging volumes of shipments, he said.

AUSTIN, Texas -- CBP Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will raise the need for a worldwide unique facility identifier when he travels to Brussels in early July for a meeting of the World Customs Organization policy council, Valerie Neuhart, acting director of CBP’s Office of Trade Relations, said on June 21. McAleenan will be joined in the effort by representatives from Canada and Mexico, who have also been in discussions with CBP about harmonizing unique facility identifiers, she said, speaking during a panel discussion of upcoming ACE priorities at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference.