Tim Warren

President Donald Trump sent the nomination of Acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to serve as CBP commissioner to the Senate, the White House said in a May 22 news release (here). McAleenan became acting deputy commissioner in 2013 and ascended to commissioner on an acting basis after Gil Kerlikowske stepped down with the change of administration in January (see 1611090035). Several industry groups as well as former Department of Homeland Security top officials praised the White House's March announcement that Trump intended to nominate McAleenan for the permanent leadership position (see 1703310040, 1704280031, 1704250016, 1704170014, and 1704100034).

A lack of clarity on "a unique identifier for supply chain operators crossing borders" is limiting the potential for trusted trader programs internationally, CBP Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said during a May 17 speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Supply Chain Summit. "We've been working so hard to recognize Authorized Economic Operator programs globally with partners, we've entered into Mutual Recognition Agreements, we're intending to expand them," but "they are not having dramatic operational value for our trade partnership," he said. McAleenan has been pushing to standardize unique identifiers (see 1612020024).

CBP is announcing the calendar year 2017 tariff rate quota for tuna in airtight containers (here). It said 14,609,465 kilograms of tuna in air-tight containers may be entered and withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during 2017, at the rate of 6% ad valorem under HTS subheading 1604.14.22. Any such tuna which is entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during the current calendar year in excess of this quota will be dutiable at the rate of 12.5% ad valorem under HTS subheading 1604.14.30.

Rags made from used T-shirts and imported from Canada don't meet the NAFTA requirements for "waste" or scrap," CBP said in a March 2 ruling (here). The ruling came in response to a request for further review of protest from Wipeco Industries, which imported the "t-shirt wipers." The Port of Buffalo rejected the original NAFTA claim "because Wipeco could not substantiate the origin of the yarns and fibers in the used t-shirts," CBP said.

Expected reviews of U.S. free trade agreements may offer a "once in a generation" opportunity to fix some restrictions on drawback, said David Corn, vice president of Comstock and Holt, during a recent interview. While changes to the restrictions in NAFTA are a priority, there's also some hope that similar restrictions in the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement could also be revised, he said. A group calling itself the Duty Drawback Coalition, which Corn is involved in, submitted comments to the Commerce Department noting the problems created by the NAFTA drawback restrictions (see 1704170025).

A "very limited" number of goods in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States don't have corresponding free trade agreement (FTA) tariff change rules (TCR), CBP said in a CSMS message (here). That's because the FTAs were negotiated using an HTS that has since been modified -- in 2007, 2012 or 2017 -- and corresponding tariff change rules have not yet been implemented, the agency said. "Until revised TCRs are implemented, manufacturers/exporters/importers of affected goods seeking to perform a tariff-shift origination analysis should classify the good and its materials using the most recent HTSUS in which the tariff item has a corresponding TCR and perform the origination analysis using that year’s HTSUS," it said.

CBP is developing a repository of possible deregulatory actions that could serve as offsetting actions for regulatory proposals considered "significant" by the Office of Management and Budget, said Alice Kipel, executive director of CBP's Office of Regulations and Rulings (OR&R), during a May 8 interview. Federal agencies, under a January executive order, are required to repeal two regulations for each new regulation seen as "significant" by OMB (see 1702070048). So far, though, OMB has not flagged any trade-related CBP regulations as "significant," Kipel said. "At this time, with respect to the regulations that CBP has in the interagency review process, I am not aware of any trade regulation that has been deemed 'significant' by OMB and offsetting regulations would not be immediately" necessary if it hasn't been deemed significant, she said.

CBP won't be able to accept drawback claims filed in ACE under the revised processes that come from the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act when they take effect on Feb. 24, 2018, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a May 9 email. The agency lacks the funding to complete the TFTEA-related programming and "CBP believes that it needs a full year to program all agency requirements," according to the NCBFAA. Still, CBP is expected to finish necessary regulatory changes by the statutory deadline, even if ACE isn't ready for the TFTEA changes.

It's unlikely CBP would seek to end or make major changes to the use of first sale valuation in the near future, said Julie Hughes, president of the U.S. Fashion Industry Association, during a panel discussion hosted by the Fashion Institute of Technology on May 4 (here). Given the controversy that arose when CBP began an effort (see 14090816) to "review how you might better define first sale, I don't see it going away," she said. "But what I do see happening is that there are more audits that consider first sale and that might be a trigger for more audits and that's kind of a way to make sure companies are doing the due diligence."

The timing for ACE programming related to changes to drawback from the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act is uncertain due to a lack for funding to cover such programming, said Michael Cerny, a lawyer with Cerny Associates. CBP said in its most recent newsletter on drawback progress (here) that the agency discussed TFTEA and ACE during an April 13 teleconference and that similar calls will occur biweekly with a drawback-focused working group that helps advise CBP on drawback in ACE. Cerny, who is also in the drawback working group, said by email that "the trade has concerns about there being enough time for CBP to complete that programming in order to accept claims" by Feb. 24, 2018, as required in TFTEA (see 1603010043).