Monday Morning eBriefing

Our Congressional Members may be overwhelmed by the demands of the day, but that doesn’t mean NCBFAA members should delay personally contacting these lawmakers to let them know just how important the Customs Business Fairness Act (CBFA) (H.R. 4186) is to our industry and the urgency to make this legislation permanent in the U.S. Bankruptcy Law.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told members of the trade during an ACE biweekly call on March 17 that the agency is putting a hold on all goods covered by the recently announced U.S. sanctions against Russia.

NCBFAA expresses its sincerest condolences to the family and colleagues of Edward S. Kaplan, president of Revere, Massachusetts-based OCEANAIR, Inc., who passed away March 14. He was 75.

Cyber incidents are on the rise, and they test the resiliency of every American business, especially those involved in international trade like customs brokers and freight forwarders.

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

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have continued to postpone their “Container Dwell Fee,” and said they will reconsider its possible imposition on March 25.

Here is a summary of the latest legislative and regulatory transport, logistics and trade sector updates brought to you by our NCBFAA Transportation Counsel firm Venable:

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is making three enhancements to its debt management processes to increase transparency and access to information for debtors and sureties.

The NCBFAA Transportation Committee’s Logistics Subcommittee is regularly collecting data on the nation’s rail delays and port congestion that are impacting the supply chain and your business operations.

NCBFAA on March 10 responded to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notice requesting comments regarding methods to prevent imports into the U.S. of goods mined, produced, and manufactured in China using forced labor, especially from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The DHS request for comments was facilitated by the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) and the U.S. government’s Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF).

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

During this past week, the U.S. Government activated various enforcement agencies to do “boots on the ground” outreach to the trade, including freight forwarders. This has consisted of onsite visits, calls, and follow-up emails.

For imported merchandise where Internal Revenue Tax (IRT) was paid to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), any related IRT drawback claim calculations must reflect IRT refunds paid by the Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), CBP said.

The NCBFAA Airfreight Subcommittee’s Internal Screening Advisory Council (iSAC) on March 9 identified and confirmed a new Security Threat Assessment (STA) from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to be used by the airfreight industry for all initial and renewing STA application submissions.

The NCBFAA Transportation Committee’s Logistics Subcommittee is regularly collecting data on the nation’s rail delays and port congestion that are impacting the supply chain and your business operations.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have continued to postpone their “Container Dwell Fee,” and said they will reconsider its possible imposition on March 18.

This article is provided to NCBFAA by our Customs Counsel Lenny Feldman at Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is launching the National Drug Entry Review Pilot, starting March 13, to conduct entry reviews of drug shipments on a national basis, rather than the current port-by-port entry review approach. Entry review staff for drug entries will operate on a 24/7 basis, covering all 336 ports of entry. The pilot will continue for 90 days.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in lockstep with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), FBI, and the National Security Agency (NSA), is urging U.S. infrastructure operators and air transport providers to protect themselves against the possible increase in cyberattacks.

Border Release Advanced Screening and Selectivity (BRASS) provided for the tracking and releasing of highly repetitive shipments at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) land border locations. CBP said the use of BRASS as an entry type will be discontinued when Truck Manifest Modernization (TMM) goes live for the ports listed below that are participating in the Truck phase deployment and ultimately will cease when deployment goes out to all remaining ports. The C4 code will not be supported going forward, and an alternative entry method must be utilized. This is effective for Truck only and will not affect the use of BRASS as a shipment type for Rail at this time. ACE Truck Manifest Modernization: Phase 2 and 3 Rollout Schedule: Brownsville – Deployment Jan. 31 Buffalo – Deployment March 13 Laredo – Deployment April 3 Blaine – Deployment April 24 Detroit – Deployment May 15 Remaining Ports – Deployment June 5 CBP said training will be available as rollout proceeds. On June 20, R4 will be retired. All related functionalities will be available for CBP users in the modernized application.