An author of Fighting Trade Cheats, a bill that would create a private right of action for customs fraud and hike penalties for both fraud and gross negligence, said a customs modernization package could be a vehicle for his bill to become law.
The director of CBP's trade modernization office said CBP is packaging up the discussion drafts of what it would like to see in a 21st Century Customs Framework law, and sending them to the Office of Management and Budget so that the OMB can coordinate interagency comments and clearance of the language.
The executive at CBP responsible for the two pilot programs collecting data for Section 321 and Entry Type 86 told an audience of brokers that issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking on required data submissions for de minimis shipments is "of the highest priority at CBP right now." He repeated for emphasis, "The highest priority. From the commissioner down, it has been: 'When are we going to get the NPRM?'"
The Supply Chain Agreement, one of the pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, will ask participating countries to work together to:
CBP recently posted a request for information seeking input on its process for selecting accreditors of customs broker continuing education courses, the agency said in a CSMS message Sept. 8. “CBP seeks information from organizations that believe they are able to provide accreditation services as it specifically relates to licensed customs brokers,” the RFI said.
The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 6 opinion rejected a U.S. motion to dismiss cases from three importers challenging the Commerce Department's denial of their Section 233 steel tariff exclusion requests. The government said the cases should be tossed since they concern entries that already had been finally liquidated, but Judge M. Miller Baker held that it's possible for the court to order liquidation in Administrative Procedure Act cases brought under Section 1581(i), even if liquidation is final.
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., is drafting legislation that could lead to new oversight over certain rail storage charges assessed by ocean common carriers against shippers on through bills of lading. The bill, which hasn't been completed, could require the Federal Maritime Commission and the Surface Transportation Board to “get together” and decide who should regulate those charges, a Garamendi staffer told us.
The Customs Business Fairness Act, a change to bankruptcy law that protects customs brokers, was in effect in 2021, but only as a temporary measure. Its proponents failed to pass a permanent change in 2022. The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America has made a significant advance in the more than 20-year fight to make it so that the money that brokers' clients give them to send to CBP to pay tariffs is not subject to clawback after a bankruptcy filing. The clawback provisions are there so that company insiders don't strip a company of assets through bonuses or other special financial treatment to preferred vendors in the last three months before a filing.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is extending 77 COVID-19-related tariff exclusions as well as the 352 Section 301 exclusions that were restored in March 2022. Both sets of exclusions, which were to expire at the end of September, will last through Dec. 31.
China exports squid and tuna to the U.S. from its distant water fishing fleet, which "is characterized by numerous reported incidents of forced labor. The majority of the crew on board the vessels in this fleet are migrant workers from Indonesia and the Philippines, who are particularly vulnerable to forced labor," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in a report to Congress sent last week. This was the first time that the report on illegal fishing, which comes out every two years, covered forced labor.