Monday Morning eBriefing

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will meet with its Mexican counterpart in Mexico City on July 21 for the third bilateral negotiating round related to the Joint Review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Negotiating teams will convene for three days to advance discussions on issues regarding trade in steel and aluminum and derivative products, automobiles, economic security, labor, agriculture, and electronic payment services.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) notified the trade that on Saturday, July 18, it will deploy a new validation in ACE for import adjustment offsets for Section 232 duties on automobile and medium and heavy-duty vehicle parts. An updated version of the ACE CATAIR Error Dictionary V51 has been posted under the Supporting Documents: Documentation for Entry Summary Chapters section on CBP.gov.

U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) Judge Richard Eaton on July 15 ordered Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in anticipation of the agency’s Consolidated Administration and Process of Entries (CAPE) Phase 3 in ACE to “reliquidate certain finally liquidated entries," adding that "the order will be entered in each of the approximately 3,700 IEEPA cases assigned to the court."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is now implementing its recent final rule to change the definition of shellfish to include squid, cuttlefish, octopus and other cephalopods. The agency had notified the trade that, effective July 23, wildlife or wildlife products meeting the amended definition of shellfish (such as squid, octopus, and cuttlefish) that are being imported or exported for human, or animal consumption will be exempt from FWS declaration, license, and clearance requirements.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) notified Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that Caruso, Inc., the only import fumigation provider in Virginia treated its last import containers on July 15 and has now closed for business.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) met with NCBFAA Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) leaders to assess the certificate eFiling initiative one week after the "Go-Live." CPSC said they were overall "pleasantly surprised" by the volume of filings in this first week. CPSC was interested to hear of customs brokers' experiences, which generated a useful back-and-forth discussion for both the RAC and CPSC.

Filing a lawsuit now before the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) now appears to be the surest, quickest way to obtain IEEPA tariff refunds on finally liquidated entries, which are currently ineligible for processing under the CAPE refund system. Customs brokers are advised to encourage their importer clients to contact legal counsel to consider filing on their behalf and assist with other options to preserve their right to these refunds.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on July 1 announced that the U.S. has not agreed to renew U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in its current form but will continue engaging with Mexico and Canada to address what it called the agreement’s “shortcomings” and trade deficits with both countries. In practical terms, USMCA remains in force while those issues are worked through—or until it terminates in 2036.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge will officially open on July 27, creating a new high-capacity Canada-U.S. border crossing that is expected to strengthen North American supply chains, enhance trade and transportation efficiency, and support long-term economic growth in the Windsor-Detroit corridor.

Ha Nguyen McNeill, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), announced July 16 that Christopher Chipps will serve as the agency’s new Executive Director for Air Cargo. Prior to this appointment, Chipps served as TSA International Compliance Division Director.

A summary of the latest customs and cross-border trade regulatory updates brought to you by our NCBFAA Customs Counsel firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg.

A summary of the latest legislative and regulatory transport, logistics and trade sector updates brought to you by our NCBFAA Transportation Counsel firm Venable.

On behalf of NCBFAA's Board of Directors, Leadership and Staff, we want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome American Clearance Brokerage, Kamigumi USA, King Ocean Services, On Time Customs Brokerage, and Sidney Freidin which have recently joined our association. We're so excited to have these firms join our organization and we are happy to assist in any way we can!

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on July 15 announced that under President Trump’s direction, the U.S. will impose a 25% tariff under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act on certain goods from Brazil. The tariffs, with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, will take effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on July 22.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on July 15 provided guidance to the trade regarding the new requirements for reporting the countries of smelt and cast on imports of certain copper articles per Proclamation 11021. Effective July 30, imports of certain copper articles from all countries of origin (except the U.S.), shall report the primary country of smelt and country of cast, and may report the secondary country of smelt, on the entry summary line for the following HTSUS classifications: 8544.42.10; 8544.42.20; 8544.42.90; and 8544.49.10.

An important feature of the annual NCBFAA Government Affairs Conference (GAC) is meeting with your elected officials on Capitol Hill to help ensure they understand the implications of any trade-related legislation placed before them. With the multitude of changes occurring in Washington, D.C., the resulting impact on cross-border trade, and consequently our industry, means that NCBFAA Member representation at the GAC is vitally important. To prepare members on how to best approach lawmakers and their staff about important issues to our industry, NCBFAA will host a webinar on Thursday, Aug. 20, from 1-2 p.m. ET.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on July 16 introduced to the trade a new “Inactive for Entry Purposes” status for Importers of Record (IOR) in the ACE Production environment. The agency said the enhancement will enable CBP to automatically deactivate IOR accounts that have not filed an entry within 366 days, in accordance with 19 CFR 24.5(e). IORs with this status will be ineligible to transmit ACE Cargo Release and ACE Entry Summary transactions.

The NCBFAA Customs Committee brings to the attention of our customs broker members and their importer clients a reminder of the bond sufficiency computation. The current bond sufficiency computation guidance is outlined in the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) A Guide for the Public: How CBP Sets Bond Amounts | U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Under this guidance, bond sufficiency is calculated using estimated duties, taxes, and fees (DTFs).

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a July 13 update to the U.S. Court of International Trade reported that as of 3 p.m. ET on Friday, July 10, approximately 24.4 million entries with IEEPA duties were processed through the agency’s Consolidated Administration and Process of Entries (CAPE) since the ACE program’s launch on April 20, accounting for $121.75 billion in both potential and certified refunds.

Customs and Border Protection on July 13 provided an updated Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Development and Deployment Schedule to the trade. Specifically, the NCBFAA Customs Committee wants to bring to the attention of our customs broker members, as well as their importer clients, the Post Summary Correction (PSC) and single pay through ABI functionality which is scheduled for deployment on July 25.