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.
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 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously ruled with the Justice Department in a suit filed by the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG) over the implementation of import restrictions on cultural property from China and Cyprus. Circuit Judge Harvie Wilkinson declined to take up such a far reaching review into "negotiations between the Department of State and foreign countries, injecting the courts into an area of law covered by statutorily conferred executive discretion and congressional oversight," he said in his opinion.
New lobbyist registrations on trade issues include:
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
CBP is formally announcing and expanding its Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) pilot program to include a wider group of companies involved in the cargo business, the agency said in a Oct. 24 Federal Register notice. CBP will allow other express couriers, passenger carriers, all-cargo carriers, and freight forwarders to participate in pilot program. The pilot is now open to all organizations within the air cargo supply chain, though "participation is limited to those parties with sufficient information technology infrastructure and support." Comments on the pilot are due Nov. 24.
CBP issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of Oct. 22. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, and tobacco; and certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, OFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, OFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying textile articles and/or other articles; the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc.
CBP posted an Oct. 22 version of its CF 1400 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Entrances) electronic query report of the Vessel Management System (VMS), in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by entrances. CBP also posted a version of its CF 1401 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Clearances) electronic query report of the VMS, in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by clearances.
Lawmakers from the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees lauded the Oct. 22 announcement of the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement entering into force at the end of the month.
CBP will add air cargo in-bond functionality to the Automated Broker Interface on Nov. 5, the agency said in a CSMS message. ABI in-bond requests, which are currently being tested, may only be transmitted for air waybills that have been transmitted and accepted in the Air Automated Manifest System, said CBP. CBP also provided a set of tips on using air in-bonds:
CBP posted an updated "Trade Transformation" guide, providing a list of some of the remaining questions to consider as it moves toward a rewrite of broker regulations. The document also now includes a list of Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) capabilities, descriptions of ACE goals and the impacts of certain capabilities.