CBP provided an outline of system requirements for filing claims under the Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).
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 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.
CBP selected 11 cargo release/simplified entry pilot participants, the agency said. The new participants are: Alliance Customs Clearance Inc., Barthco International Inc. dba OHL International, CEVA Logistics, CSI Weiss-Rohlig USA Inc., Damco Customs Services, Inc., DHL Express, Inc. (USA), Future Forwarding Company, NEC Corporation of America, Scarbrough International, Ltd., Schenker, Inc., and UTC Overseas, Inc.
CBP is expected to perform a larger number of reviews to check importer compliance with NAFTA requirements, A.N. Deringer said in an alert. The company said CBP recently found that a high number of NAFTA claims aren't verifiable and that importers and exporters should take a close look at their claims.
CBP canceled the Nov. 1 Webinar on "Follow-up on Q&A’s from previous webinars," according to the CBP schedule of Webinars. The agency didn't say why it was canceled or if it would be rescheduled. The Nov. 1 Webinar was scheduled to be the last of several, which are meant to facilitate discussion with the trade community on coming changes to broker regulations in 19 CFR Part 11.
CBP released its Oct. 24 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 46, No. 44). While the Bulletin does not contain any ruling articles, it does include Court of International Trade decisions.
The Internet allows "microbusinesses" to thrive in sales abroad, and the U.S. government should develop policies to encourage that growth, said e-commerce and trade experts at a panel discussion hosted by eBay and the National Foreign Trade Council Oct. 24. The event coincided with eBay's release of a report focused on how 97 percent of its commercial users, including small sellers, use the website to sell to customers abroad. The U.S. government can take steps, both within its own policies and when negotiating trade agreements with other nations, to help Internet-enabled small businesses grow, panelists said, echoing the findings and suggestions in the report. The eBay report is available (here).
CBP posted a press release on the recent expansion of its Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) pilot program. The release (here) mirrors the Oct. 24 Federal Register notice. CBP also corrected a mistaken email address within that Federal Register notice. The corrected email address to submit comments about the ACAS pilot is cbpccs@cbp.dhs.gov. The Federal Register notice about the correction is (here).
New lobbyist registrations on trade issues include:
CBP named Eunett James-Mack as the Florida Agriculture Liaison, effective Oct. 21. James-Mack, previously agriculture program manager for CBP's Tampa Field Office, will help CBP facilitate the flow of agriculture-related information among CBP field offices, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and State Plant Regulatory officials.