Tim Warren

CBP announced the calendar year 2020 tariff-rate quota for tuna in airtight containers, in a notice. It said 15,881,292 kilograms of tuna in air-tight containers may be entered and withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during 2020, at the rate of 6% under HTS subheading 1604.14.22. Any such tuna that is entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during the current calendar year in excess of this quota will be dutiable at the rate of 12.5% under HTS subheading 1604.14.30.

CBP added on May 14 the ability in ACE for importers to file entries with recently excluded goods in the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs, it said in a CSMS message. The official Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notice for the exclusions was published on May 8 (see 2005050037). The exclusions are in subheading 9903.88.46. The exclusions 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, and will expire after Aug. 7, 2020. The CSMS message also includes a summary of Section 301 duties that shows information on each tranche of tariffs and granted product exclusions.

The travel limitations imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in a big hit to CBP's budget due to the decrease in corresponding user fees, said Thomas Overacker, CBP executive director, Cargo and Conveyance Security, while speaking on the virtual National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones conference on May 12. CBP is actively looking for ways to cut spending as a result. Overacker said the northern and southern border restrictions are scheduled to expire on May 20 (see 2004210046) and that there's been no indication that the restrictions will be extended again.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will grant extensions to 13 exclusions from the first list of Section 301 tariffs on China that were due to expire May 14, it said in a pre-publication copy of a notice posted to its website. The exclusions that weren't extended will expire May 14.

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CBP issued a withhold release order for “imported merchandise made wholly or in part with seafood harvested by the Yu Long No. 2, a Taiwanese flagged fishing vessel, at all U.S. ports of entry” CBP said in a news release. The WRO was issued due to suspicions of forced labor use and is effective as of May 11, CBP said. This WRO is the second order issued this month (see 2005010040).

The Office of U.S. Trade Representative announced a new round of Section 301 tariff exclusions (see 2005110005) that includes some medical supplies that were included in the fourth tranche of tariffs.

CBP is trying to get a handle on a recent boom in Type 86 entries, said Jim Swanson of the Office of Cargo Security and Controls in the CBP Office of Field Operations. The dramatic increase in entries is causing slowdowns in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and threatens to overwhelm the agency's ability to control the flow, he said. Swanson spoke on a May 8 conference call about the bottlenecking entries. With more than 30 million entries and nearing 40 million, “I believe Type 86 has now surpassed the number of formal entries filed in previous years” or is “awful close to it,” he said.

Imports of a portable water pipe called the “Portibol” are prohibited as drug paraphernalia based on several marketing efforts around the product, CBP said in an April 22 ruling. Crane Worldwide Logistics, on behalf of LDM Hospitality, sought CBP's input on the tariff classification of the product. The company suggested the intended use for the Portibol is for tobacco.

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