Correction: CBP hasn't had a Senate-confirmed commissioner since 2009. CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin was appointed, but never confirmed.
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's planned combination of trusted trade programs, a consolidation of Importer Self Assessment (ISA) and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), would require members of the combined program to meet ISA criteria, said Michael Ginn, director of CBP's C-TPAT Field Office. Ginn spoke on a panel Nov. 27 at the CBP East Coast Trade Symposium. The goal in combining the programs is to create a singular validation and management approach to the trusted trader program, said Dan Baldwin, CBP executive director for Cargo and Conveyance Security, who spoke on the same panel. “We are taking a more reasoned approach on how to validate a company’s compliance level," said Baldwin. "There is every reason to believe a small company is just as responsible and deserving of our trust as the large corporations.”
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), Ranking Member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are concerned with China's economic model and use of state-owned enterprises, they said in a letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The letter was sent ahead of a meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade.
CBP's Office of Information and Technology has posted an updated list of companies/persons offering ABI data processing services to the trade community.
CBP posted its fiscal year 2012 Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (also known as the "Byrd Amendment") annual report. Among other things, CBP lists $28 million in antidumping duties that are awaiting collection and then disbursement, which will occur in the year in which the monies are received.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
Port code 1402 (Newport News, VA) is now inactive for CBP transactions, CBP said in a CSMS message. All CBP transactions should be filed using port code 1401 (Norfolk-Newport News, VA), said CBP. This change aligns port operations with 19 CFR 101.3.
CBP granted “snow days” for all entries at the Ports of JFK and New York/Newark for the entire week beginning Oct. 29 and ending Nov. 2 due to Superstorm Sandy, the agency said in a CSMS message. The 'snow days' allow for late entry filing and payments of duties that were due Oct. 29-Nov. 2 without penalties, said CBP.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider Dec. 6 the nomination of Mark Barnett, to be a Judge of the United States Court of International Trade.
CBP is moving toward testing Simplified Entry for Lacey Act filings, said Vincent Annunziato, director of cargo control and release at CBP, speaking at the CBP East Coast Trade Symposium Nov. 28. CBP recently wrapped up its Phase 1 of Simplified Entry testing when it expanded the pilot to numerous ports, said Annunziato. (See ITT's Online Archives 12081319 for summary of CBP's plans to expand the simplified entry pilot. Simplified Entry allows for filing of shipment information earlier in the import process and is now being tested within air cargo.)