CBP issued a blanket Snow Day to filers whose computer access has been interrupted due to the storm on Oct. 29-30, the agency said in a CSMS message. This applies to entries filed in the ports that were closed because of the storm or prepared at remote location filing entries from the affected ports, said CBP. The policy also applies to entries not directly affected by the storm, but whose filers use computer systems that are located in areas that lost power due to the storm, the agency 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 sent a CSMS message reminding Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement filers of origination requirements for preference claims. When a Korea FTA preference claim is made on an importation into the U.S., an importer must have either a certification of origin in its possession, or the claim may be based on importer knowledge that the good is an originating good, including a reasonable reliance on information in the importer’s possession, said CBP.
CBP declined to support a Great Idea Form (GIF) for ultimate consignee reports due to confidentiality concerns, according to the September Trade Support Network (TSN) report. The GIF was prepared at the request of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), which is concerned over the ability to fraudulently list GMA members a consignee. CBP said they "cannot support this GIF as it would be a clear violation of confidentiality" because the "importer’s business data is protected information which CBP cannot share with a third party," said the TSN report.
CBP is requesting comments by Dec. 31 for an existing information collection on trademarks and copyrights. CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection without a change to the burden hours or to the information collected. The notice is scheduled to run in the Federal Register Oct. 31.
CBP posted an October fact sheet on Simplified Entry (SE), which provides information on how the SE process works, advantages to the approach and the addition of other parts within the SE pilot. The fact sheet included a new list of participants involved in the SE/Cargo Release pilot program.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Oct. 28 with 335 rulings, bringing the total number of searchable rulings to 174,674. The most recent ruling is dated 10/19/2012.
CBP will soon ask for user feedback on it's Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), the agency said in its ACE Trade Account Owner (TAO) update for October. CBP has asked for such input the last several years, it said.
CBP will start using additional agriculture hold types to to better indicate the status of cargo on agriculture hold, said CBP Seattle in a Trade Information Notice (TIN) . According to the TIN:
CBP posted a spreadsheet listing the top 5,000 importers for fiscal year 2012. The spreadsheet contains an alphabetical list of the companies names and addresses.