Tim Warren

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) should reconsider its "unfair and unnecessarily adverse" interpretation of antiboycott regulations for "vessel eligible certificates," the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) said in a filing with BIS (here). The association complained that the BIS Office of Antiboycott Compliance (OAC) has taken a problematic stance as to how it considers such certificates, hurting exporters and forwarding agents as a result. Antiboycott laws restrict U.S. companies' compliance with Arab-country laws that call for a boycott of any dealings with Israel, including use of Israeli ports.

CBP, after consulting with the Commerce Department, ruled against a protest filed by a Rubicon Group company that said the agency mistakenly applied the "all-others" antidumping duty rate for five 2012 shrimp entries. The Aug. 5 further review of protest (here), submitted by Sea Wealth Frozen Food, said CBP was in error when it liquidated the entries, because Commerce instructed CBP to apply the all others rate to resellers or intermediaries, while Sea Wealth is an exporter within the Rubicon Group that was assigned Rubicon's AD rate. The entries at issue in the protest, which was filed with the Port of Los Angeles, were subject to duties on frozen warmwater shrimp from Thailand.

A multi-decade delay to the CBP liquidation of two entries that were subject to antidumping duties was not a constitutional violation by the agency, CBP said in an Aug. 5 ruling. Mowry & Grimson requested the agency further review a protest to consider whether the delay illegally neglected the Constitution's due process clause. The ruling, HQ H233640, also considered whether the importer, M & G Industries, presented certificates of non-reimbursement in time. Although some of the arguments raised have been previously addressed, CBP said "there are facts and legal arguments that have not been the subject of a Headquarters ruling or court decision."

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- A wide-ranging update to the trade-related regulations of agencies outside CBP may not be possible by the 2016 deadline for completion of the International Trade Data System (ITDS), said CBP Office of International Trade Commissioner Brenda Smith. "People rarely want to change regulations," she said Oct. 17 at the Western Cargo Conference. "My guess is that, there is a lot more work than we are going to be able to get to by 2016," she said. Still, the Border Interagency Executive Council is already discussing ways to make improvements, such as aligning differing definitions between CBP and the Food and Drug Administration for unique identifiers and port facilities, she said.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- It's important that the port directors and field operations directors have the authority to shift and move resources in order to reduce exam times and cargo slowdowns, said CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske on Oct. 18 while speaking at the Western Cargo Conference. CBP could also use additional manpower, said Kerlikowske. While Congress approved a fiscal year 2014 funding increase to hire 2,000 additional CBP officers in fiscal year 2014, which the agency is still in the process of hiring, the White House asked for another 2,000 for FY2015 (see 14040301).

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – There’s already some concerns with the recently proposed revision to CBP Form 5106 and the amount of information CBP is seeking, said panelists and brokers during the Western Cargo Conference on Oct. 17. With several new efforts underway to better identify importers – 5106, bona fides, Known Importer program -- there also remain some unanswered questions as to what the exact expectation of the broker will be, some said. The proposed 5106 includes a number of new data fields for a wide variety of corporate information on the importer (see 14100815), which will in turn help guide the formation of revised guidance for gathering importer bona fides.

CBP rejected a protest filed by Kenton Tobacco that asked the agency to reclassify tobacco under "actual use" tariff provisions despite being previously entered under a different subheading. The July 18 ruling, HQ H240589, also looked at whether broker error, which the company said resulted in the misclassification, can negate the requirements for actual use provision declarations. The ruling, a further review of protest, found that a declaration had to be made at time of entry for classification under the actual use provision. The actual use provisions at issue requires the importer to demonstrate the planned use for the unmanufactured tobacco.

The Federal Maritime Commission approved the proposed A. P. Moller-Maersk and MSC Mediterranean Shipping vessel sharing agreement, also known as 2M, the agency said on Oct. 9. The 2M agreement would "authorize the parties to share vessels and engage in related cooperative operating activities in the trades between the U.S. and Asia, North Europe, and the Mediterranean." The FMC "decision is based on a determination that the agreement is not likely at this time, by a reduction in competition, to produce an unreasonable increase in transportation cost or an unreasonable reduction in transportation service," it said. Commissioner Richard Lidinsky dissented.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:

CBP is in the process of internally organizing a number of areas of the coming Trusted Trader pilot as the test nears its start, said Michael Denning, acting executive director, Cargo and Conveyance Security, during the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) meeting on Oct. 7. CBP has selected and started to notify accepted applicants for the Trusted Trader pilot, he said. The pilot, which will test a combined CBP’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) supply chain security program with the Importer Self Assessment (ISA) import compliance program, was announced in June (see 14061320).