Tim Warren

The Federal Maritime Commission posted the agenda for its Oct. 1 public forum focused on port congestion. The forum will include panel discussions on carriers, trucking and labor, among other issues, the agenda said.

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 15-19 in case they were missed.

CBP seized 18 shipments of counterfeit rechargeable toys at the Laredo Port of Entry from late June through early September, the agency said in a Sept. 22 release. CBP seized a total of 4,671 rechargeable toys, which, if real, would be worth $1,292,953, based on the manufacturer's suggested retail price, it said. CBP import specialists noticed that the battery chargers accompanying each rechargeable toy all included an Underwriters' Laboratories trademark, the agency said. CBP then "conducted a review and discovered that the shipments lacked legal authorization documentation to use the recorded trademark" and an enforcement manager for UL confirmed that the trademark use was unauthorized, CBP said.

CBP issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of Sept. 22. This report (here) includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, and tobacco; and certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, OFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, OFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying textile articles and/or other articles; the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc.

CBP issued two memorandums on in-quota allocations for the raw and refined sugar tariff rate quota, which will open on Oct. 1. The first memo lists the country-specific in-quota allocations for the raw cane sugar TRQ. Instructions regarding the certificate of quota eligibility (CQE) are also included in the memo (here). The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative recently made its announcement on country-by-country allocations (see 14090405).

CBP is unable to refund the alchohol excise tax it collected from a company that mistakenly listed a tax rate over the actual required amount, the agency told Southern Wine and Spirits of America in July 3 ruling. The ruling, HQ H214255, addressed whether CBP has the authority to refund the excess payment that was a result of a miscalculated tax rate listed by Southern Wine on its entry filing. In this case, listing the wrong tax rate was a clerical error, rather than a "mathematical error," leaving CBP unable to give the refund, it said in the further review of protest.

Guatemala formally joined the World Customs Organization Harmonized System Convention Sept. 18, said the WCO. The country is the 151st contracting party, the WCO said.

CBP recently provided guidance to rail carriers on single entry filing for multiple rail cars that enter the U.S. on a single train, CBP said in a CSMS message. The regulations in 19 CFR 141.51 requires that "“all merchandise arriving on one conveyance and consigned to one consignee must be included on one entry." According to CBP, the consignee can be "either nominal or ultimate" and "a single train and all its associated cars, containers, or other shipping devices filed using one manifest" in ACE is considered a single conveyance. The entry may include multiple HTS numbers, multiple manufacture identification numbers and multiple countries of origin, it said. To file a single entry for multiple cars, the train does not have to be a unit train, which is "a single conveyance where all of the cargo on the train is the same, bound for the same destination," the agency said. "Multi-Modal Manifest in ACE (ACE M1) is designed to allow a single entry to be filed for multiple rail cars, containers, or other shipping devices regardless of what other commodities and/or bills may be manifested and entered."

CBP posted the transcript (here) and presentation (here) from a Sept. 17 webinar on Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) air import manifest.

CBP officers at the San Juan air cargo facility recently seized a number counterfeit phones and cellphone accessories, including two phony versions of the latest iPhone, the agency said. The intellectual property infringing products, seized in late August, also included two Samsung Galaxy phones, and 319 iPhone cell phone panels, said CBP. “Counterfeiters have the audacity of selling fakes even before the new branded product makes its official unveiling,” said Marcelino Borges, director of Field Operations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. “Our CBP field operations officers will continue to target and seize imports of counterfeit and pirated goods, and enforce exclusion orders on patent-infringing and other IPR goods."