CBP can’t assess the effectiveness of enforcement activities largely because its plans generally lack targets to evaluate performance, and the agency continues to fall short of congressionally directed staffing levels in some job categories, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released June 12 (here). CBP hasn’t met minimum staffing levels set by Congress for four of nine positions that perform customs revenue functions over the past five years, said the report, which was mandated by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA)
Drawback
A duty drawback is a refund by CBP of the duties, taxes, or fees paid on imported goods, which were imposed upon importation as prescribed in 19 U.S.C. 1313(d). More broadly, a drawback also includes the refund or remission of other excise taxes pursuant to other provisions of law.
NAFTA negotiators should embrace trade facilitation and “do no harm” to existing cross-border relationships as they rework the agreement, trade associations said in comments to the U.S. Trade Representative (here). USTR on June 13 extended the deadline for comment submission on the expected NAFTA renegotiation from June 12 until 11:59 p.m. on June 14, citing "high interest" and a need to ensure all interested participants have an opportunity to comment. USTR requested input on potential modifications to the agreement following the administration’s formal notification to Congress that it intends to start renegotiating the agreement as early as mid-August (see 1705220007 and 1705180043).
CBP updated its information pages on ACE (here) following the agency's announcement that it will require the use of ACE beginning July 8 for drawback and duty deferral entries and entry summaries (see 1706070042). The agency updated its specific pages for drawback (here), duty deferral (here), reconciliation (here), statements (here) and liquidation (here).
CBP will require ACE filing beginning July 8 for drawback and duty deferral entries and entry summaries, it said in a notice (here). The same July 8 deadline will also apply to reconciliation and recently announced changes to post-summary corrections and period monthly statements (see 1612090021 and 1701060029), it said (here). On that date, CBP’s legacy Automated Commercial System (ACS) will no longer be authorized for drawback, duty deferral and reconciliation filings, the agency said.
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- The increase in the de minimis value threshold last year seems already to be driving a shift in international trade patterns, said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner for the CBP Office of Trade, during a May 25 interview at the West Coast Trade Symposium. "What we're seeing is significant changes in supply chains," reflected in the growing number of Section 321 entries, she said. For example, one port in Alabama with few CBP officers "is suddenly getting this flood because it's close to a distribution center," she said. Likely, that's a result of container-loads full of under $800 small packages that qualify for de minimis, she said.
Liberalized tariff-shift rules and higher de minimis levels for Canada and Mexico could be included in the expected NAFTA renegotiation, industry sources said in recent interviews. As the administration works toward the statutorily required notice to Congress of plans to reopen NAFTA discussions, law firms and industry stakeholders are discussing what provisions they will lobby for the administration to change or add to any completed agreement. The new administration provides an opportunity for companies to “push outside the traditional boundary” of trade negotiations, and companies’ personnel who were traditionally compliance-focused are now in a “new frontier” of engagement in government-business dialogues, Crowell & Moring attorney Jini Koh said in an interview. “I think that’s new to companies.”
Plans for deploying the drawback simplification changes in ACE remain an open question due to uncertain funding sources, a CBP spokeswoman said. Those simplification changes were part of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA) and regulations are expected to be in place as required by Feb. 24, 2018, but it's unclear how those changes in ACE would be paid for (see 1705090022). "The development of proposed regulations to implement the TFTEA drawback program is well underway," the spokeswoman said. "Given that development and deployment of Drawback Simplification in ACE per TFTEA, in February 2018, is an unfunded mandate, CBP continues to assess the path forward."
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 8-12 in case they were missed.
A bipartisan group of 14 House lawmakers sent a letter May 11 to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer just after his confirmation urging him to work to remove NAFTA drawback and duty deferral restrictions during any renegotiation of the deal. As expected (see 1705100034), the lawmakers wrote that NAFTA and the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement are the only U.S. trade deals that contain such restrictions, which increase production costs and weaken U.S. manufacturing and worker competitiveness. A group calling itself the Duty Drawback Coalition highlighted similar concerns in recent comments to the Commerce Department (see 1704170025).
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).