A withhold release order aimed at goods from China's Xinjiang region wouldn't go far enough in the fight against forced labor, the Coalition for a Prosperous America said in a Nov. 9 letter to Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. CBP should instead hit all of China with a WRO, the CPA said. CBP is considering a regional WRO (see 2009140040), which was in itself already seen by some industries as major and potentially onerous action. A “country wide-WRO is the only approach to stopping forced labor,” the trade group said.
Tim Warren
Timothy Warren is Executive Managing Editor of Communications Daily. He previously led the International Trade Today editorial team from the time it was purchased by Warren Communications News in 2012 through the launch of Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. Tim is a 2005 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids.
The mistrust by the current administration of the de minimis exemption for low-value shipments may provide an opportunity to revise the law and address some inconsistent approaches, Bryan Wolfe, vice president-international trade at Ascena Retail Group, said during the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones virtual conference on Nov. 6. Ascena, the parent company of Ann Taylor, Loft and other brands, is a leading member of Ship Safe Coalition, which advocates for policy changes around de minimis. The coalition expects that some coming changes to the de minimis entry process could be a time for “compromise between eliminating de minimis altogether and keeping it as is,” Wolfe said in his presentation.
There are no imminent plans to continue a “restrained enforcement” period after Jan. 1 for some USMCA requirements, said Queena Fan, director of the CBP USMCA Center. Fan, who said she began in that role about two weeks ago, spoke Nov. 4 during National Association for Foreign-Trade Zones virtual conference. “As of right now, plan still is Jan. 1,” she said. Still, “I'm not saying it's set in stone” if other issues come up and industry concerns should be brought to CBP. The agency is using a period of enforced compliance that ends Jan. 1 for some USMCA provisions, while the auto sector has a longer period of informed compliance that is set to end July 1, 2021.
CBP's information collection for commercial invoices “indicates that there is a transaction with a price already agreed upon that the foreign seller and U.S. buyer will pay,” but that's not always true, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments to CBP on a proposed extension of the information collection (see 2009290038). “There often are shipments that are consigned, leased, etc. where the parties have not established a price to be paid and other commercial invoice information may not be available,” the association said. NCBFAA suggested that CBP's regulations should instead “require all the information normally provided on a commercial invoice on an as needed basis and when appropriate to the transaction.”
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Oct. 26-30 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The government must go beyond merely asserting intentional misclassification even when dealing with a nonresponsive defendant, Court of International Trade Judge Mark Barnett said in an Oct. 30 ruling. The Department of Justice requested a default judgment in a case against NYWL Enterprises. DOJ alleged that the company purposefully and misclassified 107 entries of Siamese coaxial cable, and sought “a penalty in the amount of $3,760,070.00 (equal to eight times the total lost revenue) plus interest" for fraud.
Leather and other components from China used to make footwear in Ethiopia satisfy the double substantial transformation requirement to be counted toward the 35% content requirement for African Growth and Opportunity Act treatment, CBP said in an Aug. 18 ruling. The footwear was entered with a Special Indicator “D” for AGOA but CBP at the time denied the AGOA treatment. The importer, VCS Group, pursued a further review of protest over the decision.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Oct. 19-23 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP is seeking public comment on whether to impose continuing education requirements on licensed customs brokers, it said in a notice released Oct. 27. The notice, an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, is the latest development in the long-discussed idea of adding such requirements (see 2002130025). CBP's notice goes over a number of possible scenarios for how continuing education could be administered and asks for input on a wide range of operational questions.
CBP is planning to “streamline its current process on the forfeiture and disposition of seized merchandise” valued at less than $2,500, the agency told the Government Accountability Office in response to a GAO report. The GAO recommended in its report that CBP take a faster enforcement approach to counterfeit goods in small packages. CBP agreed with the recommendation and said a new policy is estimated to be in place by Jan. 29.