Tim Warren

The duty rate for Tiffany & Co. watches that are imported following export for repair can be calculated based upon the rate when first imported, CBP said in a Dec. 1 ruling. The ruling, HQ H288749, came in response to an internal advice request from the Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Center of Excellence and Expertise. The company sought CBP input on the duties owed on the repairs.

The transactions between a Sri Lankan manufacturer and a related Hong Kong middleman don't satisfy the requirements for "first sale" appraisement due to the lack of fixed terms of payments, CBP said in a Dec. 20 ruling. While CBP declined to take up the issue in an Application for Further Review, the agency did address some questions in response to an internal advice request. The goods at issue are manufactured in Sri Lanka and "the U.S. importer orders merchandise from the Sri Lanka manufacturer’s related Hong Kong middleman via the importer’s online vendor portal," CBP said. All three entities are related through common ownership.

Intellectual property rights seizures continued to ascend during fiscal year 2017, CBP and ICE said a statistical report for the year. The statistics show that the number of seizures were up from FY16 (see 1701170021), though the total manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of the seized goods fell, CBP said in a press release. The number of IPR seizures grew by eight percent to 34,143 in FY17, from 31,560 in FY16. The MSRP of these seizures was down from $1.4 billion in FY16 to $1.2 billion in FY17.

CBP should "test out various methods for accomplishing the earliest possible targeting of export shipments" as part of the ongoing export manifest pilot, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee's export subcommittee said in recommendations adopted at the group's Feb. 28 meeting in Miami. The agency should also strive to "accurately measure the impact of late targeting on cargo carrier operations and the movement of legitimate cargo in order to facilitate a proper cost-benefit analysis for the regulatory rule-making," the group said in its recommendation.

CBP and ICE should look into the possibility of sharing more information with the private sector in order to better enforce intellectual property rights, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Feb. 27. The agencies should "take action to enhance information sharing, where possible, such as by proposing regulatory revisions or requesting additional legal authorities from Congress," the GAO said. CBP also should use better measures to gauge the effectiveness of the agency's intellectual property enforcement efforts, the GAO said.

CBP released its first version of ACE outage guidelines, the agency said in a CSMS message.
"CBP expects that this will allow trade partners to better understand their role in maintaining the flow of trade during ACE system interruptions and will serve as a basis for their individual downtime policies and procedures," the agency said. The agency said in documents for the Feb. 28 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting that it planned to release the downtime document by the end of the month (see 1802210034).

An apparel importer that uses a Canadian company to warehouse goods until a U.S. customer is found was unable to show sufficient proof of the two companies being separate entities, CBP said in a Dec. 12 ruling. The agency said in HQ H276403 that the goods are "not exported pursuant to a lease or similar use agreement." As a result, the merchandise isn't eligible for duty-free treatment when re-entering the U.S., CBP said.

CBP is already considering revisions to its in-bond regulations following the changes made in a final rule on the same regulations issued in September (see 1709270027), Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls, said during the Feb. 13 National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones legislative summit. "Even though we just published new in-bond regulations, for example, we really just papered over a lot of the cracks in that and listed it as an automated process," he said. CBP would like to "go back" and change the "artifacts of much older in-bond rules" to better spell out the rules and associated penalties, he said. "I've got the regulatory folks agreeing that we can begin that process."

A U.K. retailer, and its chief executive, that allegedly split shipments to avoid duties settled a whistleblower lawsuit against the company for about $900,000, the Justice Department said in a news release. The company, Pure Collection, and its CEO Samantha Harrison were said to separate single orders exceeding the de minimis value threshold into multiple smaller parcels in order to evade customs duties on imports over the de minimis level (see 1709080037). "This Settlement Agreement is neither an admission of liability by Pure nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well founded," the parties said in the court filing.

CBP released its draft guidance for drawback changes under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act to help provide detail on interim policies between when the agency starts accepting claims and when regulations are finalized. Along with a draft of Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (see 1801290007) and business process documents, "this guidance document will serve as a reference for the tentative policy and procedures relating to major drawback change," CBP said. The agency recently said it did not expect to publish proposed drawback regulations by the time CBP starts taking TFTEA claims on Feb. 24 (see 1802020053).