A determination for “whether promulgating new regulations is necessary to better define and enforce Section 321 provisions” is expected this month, the Department of Homeland Security said in a recently released report on the effort to fight intellectual property rights violations. The DHS progress report, released July 16, lists milestones and estimated timing for implementing the broader DHS strategy (see 2001240043). The milestones “focus on immediate actions and short-term deliverables that will create the building blocks for more time-intensive action that may require legislative or regulatory changes,” DHS 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.
CBP added on July 16 the ability in ACE for importers to file entries with recently excluded goods in the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs, a CSMS message said. The official Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notice for the new exclusion for motorboats was published June 24 (see 2006190034). The exclusions are in subheading 9903.88.48. They are available for any product that meets the description in the Annex to USTR’s notice, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request. The product exclusions apply retroactively to Sept. 24, 2018, the date the tariffs on the fourth list took effect, and remain in effect until Aug. 7. The CSMS message also includes information about recently granted extensions for 12 exclusions from the first list of Section 301 tariffs on China that were due to expire July 9 (see 2007080025).
Following the cancellation of the April customs broker exam, “there are a lot of people that are very interested in taking this broker exam in October” and CBP “is going to try and accommodate everyone possible,” said John Van Wallaghen, vice president at UPS Public Affairs, during the July 15 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting. The agency is planning on having a “split session on a single day” that will include morning and afternoon sessions, he said. Due to gathering restrictions, additional testing space will likely be necessary in order to hold the exams, he said.
Some new provisions within the USMCA seem to make claims of U.S. goods returned under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 9801 for U.S. origin goods much less important than was the case under NAFTA. Kevin Riddell, director-trade and regulatory compliance at Tremco Group in Canada, highlighted the changes, which allow for USMCA claims on U.S. origin goods, in a recent LinkedIn post. While Riddell said he hadn't tried to enter U.S. goods under the new USMCA provisions, a CBP spokesperson confirmed that “a USMCA claim may be made on goods of U.S. origin, provided it satisfies its applicable rule of origin and all other requirements of the Agreement have been met.”
CBP “is evaluating” the “operational approach to implementing the President’s direction” in light of the executive order ending Hong Kong's special trade status (see 2007150054), a CBP spokesperson emailed July 16. “The EO instructs agencies to commence appropriate actions within 15 days,” the spokesperson said. “We’ll be able to share more information soon.”
The Treasury Department published its spring 2020 regulatory agenda for CBP. The agenda doesn't include any new actions related to Treasury's customs revenue functions. The agenda lists Treasury's CBP rulemakings that are pending at the proposed, interim final, final and completed stages, as well as rulemakings that are long-term actions. The agenda lists the regulation title; past regulation(s), if any; the time frame for the next regulatory action(s), if any; a brief description of the regulation; and a contact party name and telephone number.
President Donald Trump's 2018 proclamation increasing the Section 232 tariffs on steel from Turkey violated "the animating statute and constitutional guarantees," a three-judge Court of International Trade panel said in a July 14 decision. The judges found that the proclamation fell outside the required time limits for making changes and Trump "acted without a proper report and recommendation by the [Commerce] Secretary on the national security threat posed by imports of steel products from Turkey."
CBP should “seek and obtain the legal authority” to create a Restricted and Prohibited Parties List of known intellectual property rights violators to help fight imports of counterfeit goods, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee IPR Working Group said in recommendations. The list should consist “of foreign and domestic parties (i.e., individuals, companies or organizations) who are known offenders due to repeat violations,” it said. The group will present the recommendations during the July 15 COAC meeting.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories from July 6-10 in case they were missed.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its spring 2020 regulatory agenda for CBP. Among the few trade-related changes to the agenda from the fall (see 1911220038) is the return of continuing education requirements for customs brokers. The possible regulatory action was previously listed on CBP's agenda but relegated in recent years to the agency's list of "Long-Term Actions."