Monday Morning eBriefing

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) e-filing team held a Virtual Office Hours session with an importer and two customs brokers to discuss the challenges and successes of the CPSC certificate e-filing pilot. The session was well attended by the trade.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the Area Port of Houston/Galveston and Freeport is immediately expanding the use of the Document Imaging System (DIS) to streamline the process for exporting used self-propelled vehicles (USPVs).

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on July 15 initiated an investigation of Brazil under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. USTR said the investigation will seek to determine whether acts, policies, and practices of the Government of Brazil related to digital trade and electronic payment services; unfair, preferential tariffs; anti-corruption interference; intellectual property protection; ethanol market access; and illegal deforestation are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published Federal Register notices on July 16 requesting comments from trade related to Section 232 investigations into polysilicon and drones, as well as their parts. Comments are due to the agency by Aug. 6.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is launching the new and improved Withhold Release Orders (WROs) and Findings Dashboard. The WROs and Findings Dashboard displays active WROs or Findings issued by CBP from 1950 to the present and is updated as new WROs or Findings are issued.

The Draft ACE Cargo Release Status Notification has been reposted to CBP.gov. There are no new changes. The Record Identifier SO70 (Output) in the ACE Cargo Release SO Status Notification document was previously updated to accommodate the increase in Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes accepted.

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) on July 14 published the latest volume of Decisions of the Federal Maritime Commission, Second Series. This publication provides a compendium of Initial and Final Decisions of the Commission and selected other orders that may be legally significant or establish legal precedent.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Aug. 20 will make available for testing in Certification (CERT) rejection error codes for bill submissions that have an invalid cargo description, shipper name, and consignee name, in addition to the previously deployed disposition codes for holds that are part of the ACE enhancement for Automated Rejection of Insufficient Cargo Description, Shipper Name, and Consignee Name.

On behalf of NCBFAA's Board of Directors, Leadership and Staff, we want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome Daniel F. Young and Universal Customhouse Brokers, 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!

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

On behalf of NCBFAA's Board of Directors, Leadership and Staff, we want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome Gulfport Logistics, Magnolia Global Trade Solutions, MaxKlear, and Refresh Global Logistics, 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 U.S. Supreme Court on July 9 lifted a lower court that blocked nearly a dozen federal government agencies from implementing layoffs and reorganizations involving hundreds of thousands of federal workers. The decision paves the way for these agencies to move forward with the reorganization and reduction-in-force plans, as required by Executive Order 14210 issued in March. The reorganization plans have been on hold since the May 2 injunction.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on July 9 announced an immediate shutdown of livestock imports from Mexico after a new world screwworm (NWS) case was reported north of the previous infestations.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) abruptly rescinded its policy allowing de minimis for five product categories — a policy dating back to 1994. This means all shipments of these previously exempt products will now require a PGA Message Set.

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

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has recently released enhancements and new features on the agency’s website bis.gov.

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

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said ACE Reports Training universe to be retired on July 17. The data elements in the Training universe will still be available in the Training.unx universe, which is not retiring, CBP said.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on July 15 will deploy a new drawback claim error message in the ACE production environment.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Aug. 14 will deploy an enhancement in the ACE Production (PROD) environment to increase the Record K1 (OUTPUT) identifier from 9 to 10 characters. This enhancement will support higher bond values in the output record. These changes will be deployed in the Certification (CERT) environment on July 15, 2025.