The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General has issued a follow-up letter on the recent "Independent Auditors' Report" issued by KPMG LLP on U.S. Customs and Border Protection's fiscal year 2010 internal controls for the financial reporting of its Information Technology activity. The letter details the "significant deficiency" that was found for CBP's IT and financial system controls in the following areas: access control, security management, segregation of duties, and financial system functionality, and lists recommendations for improvement.
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.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 20 - 24, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
The Court of International Trade has ruled1 that U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not err in denying Shell's 1997 protests seeking drawback of Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) and Environmental Tax (ET) payments associated with certain petroleum products that it imported and substitute petroleum derivatives it exported in 1993 and 1994. The CIT agreed with CBP that Shell is not entitled to drawback as its protests were untimely.
In the antidumping duty administrative review of certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India for the period December 2005 through November 2006, the International Trade Administration granted an adjustment to U.S. price to Indian producer Essar Steel Limited for import duties which the company claimed were waived under an Indian Government program to encourage exports. However, U.S. producers United States Steel Corporation and Nucor Corporation argued to the Court of International Trade that Essar had failed to prove that it had qualified for the rebate. Conceding it had made erroneous assumptions, the ITA requested a voluntary remand to reconsider the duty drawback adjustment, and the CIT issued remand instructions accordingly. (Slip Op 11-66, dated 06/14/11)
CBP has posted Amendment 2 to the April 2011 Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements document1. The following revisions were made to the below-listed CATAIR chapters and appendices in June 2011:
CBP has posted the following updated entry, summary, and drawback points of contact:
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced that it is terminating all of the remaining 100% duty rates imposed on certain products of European Union countries as a result of the EU’s failure to comply with the 1999 World Trade Organization rulings in the EU-U.S beef hormones dispute. The USTR states that it is taking this action due to a 2010 court ruling, even though the 100% duty rates had been set to expire in August 2012 under an agreement reached with the EU.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an updated version of its fact sheet on ACE Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) at-a-glance, which provides information on new and future ACE ESAR portal features. Such features reduce paper and streamline processes for CBP and the trade community etc.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 2-6, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
Registration is open for the American Association of Exporters and Importers’ (AAEI) 90th Annual Conference, which will be held on June 5-7, 2011 in New York. Among others, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Eric Hirschhorn, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin are expected to speak at the conference.