CBP and ICE will accept and consider private sector requests to conduct trade-related training, the agencies said in a notice. "Topics upon which training may be conducted include tariff classification, customs valuation, country of origin (including procedures for identifying merchandise bearing mislabeled country of origin markings), proper assessment of AD/CVD, evasion of duties on imports of textiles, border enforcement of [intellectual property rights], enforcement of child labor laws, and other topics as appropriate and useful as concerns the trade-related duties and missions of CBP and ICE."
Customs Duty
A Customs Duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs Duty Rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight.
CBP’s use of audits and other enforcement tools has grown increasingly coordinated and targeted in the years since passage of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, customs consultants from KPMG said during a webinar on Feb. 13. The passage of TFTEA marked the beginning of a “different era” than that launched by the Customs Modernization Act in 1993, with the pendulum “completely swung” from informed compliance to enforcement around priority trade issues identified in the new law, they said.
CBP collected about $34.8 billion in customs duties during fiscal year 2017, the agency said in its trade and travel report for FY 2017. That's a decrease from the $35.2 billion the agency collected in duties during FY 2016. Still, CBP collections in total duties, taxes and other fees during the year were pretty much flat -- about $40.1 billion -- when compared with the previous year. The agency also saw about a five percent increase in cargo containers from FY16, it said. "CBP processed $2.39 trillion in imports in FY2017, equating to 33.2 million entries and more than 28.5 million imported cargo containers at U.S. ports of entry," the agency said.
CBP looks set to take a wide open approach to electronic filing of Section 321 entries, with a “range of options” that allow filers to “do whatever works best for their business model,” said Michael Mullen, executive director of the Express Association of America, in an interview. Clearance off manifest would likely continue, using an item descriptor to identify cargo, with electronic filing expanded to other modes. CBP will also likely allow Section 321 entries in the Automated Broker Interface using the 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule number, Mullen said.
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.
The Trump administration's budget request for fiscal year 2019 keeps funding for the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration largely flat. Still, that funding "would allow ITA to conduct robust investigations into alleged trade violations, aggressively advocate for U.S. businesses facing tariff and non-tariff barriers abroad, and increase the capacity to closely review proposed foreign investments in U.S. businesses." The request, released Feb. 12, said "the President insisted on a simple, but forgotten principle -- America First," and said that trade enforcement is a high-priority, mission-critical program.
The Generalized System of Preferences, which expired at the end of last year, had its first move toward renewal Feb. 8, as the chairman and ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill that would extend the program for three years, the committee said in a press release. "When enacted, the bill introduced today will extend the program through December 31, 2020, and retroactively extend benefits to covered imports that have been made since the program lapsed," the release said.
Husch Blackwell added Beau Jackson as a partner in its international trade practice. Jackson, a Section 337 litigator before the International Trade Commission, also handles antidumping and countervailing duty cases, customs matters and other international trade issues. Before entering private practice, he was a law clerk at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and for the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee.
Another dorm room furniture importer will pay $500,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that alleges it misclassified bedroom furniture from China in order to evade antidumping and countervailing duties. Home Furnishings Resource Group purportedly entered its dressers and chests of drawers as non-bedroom furniture to save on the 216% AD duty in effect at the time. The False Claims Act suit was filed by University Loft, the plaintiff in several other whistleblower suits claiming dorm furniture misclassification.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Feb. 28 in Miami, CBP said in a notice.