Monday Morning eBriefing

In April 2015, the NCBFAA filed a petition with the Federal Maritime Commission requesting that the FMC initiate a rulemaking to further deregulate NVOCC rate tariffs. As you know, in addition to publishing rates in tariff form, the FMC has previously issued two exemptions for the benefit of NVOCCs. The first exemption was called NVOCC Service Arrangements ("NSAs"), which permitted NVOs to enter into private confidential contracts with their customers in a manner that is akin to service contracts that VOCCs enter into with their shipper customers. That exemption required that these NSAs be treated exactly like service contracts from a regulatory perspective, so that NVOCCs using them had to both file a copy of the contract with the FMC and publish their essential terms in a rate tariff. The second exemption pertained to NVOCC rate arrangements ("NRAs"), which permitted NVOCCs to avoid having to publish rate tariffs at all. Instead, NVOs were permitted provide their customers with rate quotations and, assuming the customers accepted, the traffic could move on that basis without having to memorialize the rates in rate tariff form. However, the NRA exemption also had disadvantages, in that: (1) the NRA could not be amended, (2) shippers were required to sign them, and (3) they could not properly include other economic terms such as commitments to ship specified volumes, liquidated damages, credit terms, etc.

The House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee introduced a long-anticipated Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) containing more than 1800 duty suspensions or duty reductions. The bill is a bipartisan, bicameral effort which follows a year long administrative process at the International Trade Commission to review petitions from companies.

The U.S. Census Bureau released data findings from the 2014 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs Exporting Firms Summary.

On October 25, CBP administered the inaugural electronic version of its Customs Broker Licensing Exam and many applicants were subjected to unsatisfactory testing conditions. As news of the examination difficulties arose, the NCBFAA requested members provide feedback to both CBP and NCBFAA with their experiences. Difficulties test takers faced included:

The Commerce Department and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the two agencies to work together to facilitate international e-commerce and strengthen enforcement of U.S. customs laws. The fast-changing e-commerce trade environment requires collaboration on policies and programs to help U.S. businesses compete in international markets.

CBP has announced that effective January 1, 2018, a number of CBP user fees will be adjusted for inflation in keeping with the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Fees affected by this 2.677 percent increase include the commercial vessel arrival fees, commercial truck arrival fees, railroad car arrival fees, private vessel arrival fees, private aircraft arrival fees, commercial aircraft and vessel passenger arrival fees, dutiable mail fees, customs broker permit user fees, barges and other bulk carrier arrival fees, and merchandise processing fees. CBP described its procedures for adjusting these user fees to reflect inflation in a release.

The FMC has launched a webpage dedicated to reporting on the agency's regulatory reform initiative. Building upon recent Presidential Executive Orders, the Commission's regulatory reform initiative is a voluntary effort to evaluate the agency's existing regulations and programs, and make recommendations regarding their repeal, replacement or modification. The Commission recently sought input from the public on this reform effort through a Notice of Inquiry, and is working to move the Commission's regulatory reform initiative forward expeditiously. Karen V. Gregory, the Commission's Regulatory Reform Officer, notes that "this webpage will further the Commission's effort to keep the public informed and engaged in the regulatory reform process."

In an effort to provide sufficient guidance for two license exceptions included in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), this final rule, published in the Wednesday November 1 Issue of the Federal Register, makes clarifications to License Exception Governments, International Organizations, International Inspections under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the International Space Station (GOV) and adds five notes, along with making other minor clarifications, to License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA).

This past week, NCBFAA President Geoff Powell and Legislative Representative Jon Kent attended Acting Commissioner McAleenan's Senate Finance confirmation hearing. Mr. Powell noted that McAleenan has "clear bi-partisan support" and believes he "did a phenomenal job answering specific questions on a wide range of issues, which demonstrated his extensive knowledge and confirms NCBFAA's endorsement of him to become the next Commissioner." Additionally, Mr. Powell attended the Southern Border Conference in Laredo, Texas, representing the NCBFAA along with our respective area Board of Director members. It was a very well attended conference that included senior executives from CBP, FDA and numerous trade partners. He was on a panel Friday with Federico Zuniga, who discussed NEI activities, and Ricardo Zaragoza, of CAAAREM, where they discussed the important work each of our respective associations are addressing on a number of issues.

The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) will hold its quarterly public meeting on Tuesday, November 14, 1-5 p.m. EST, in Washington, DC. The COAC will hear from the following subcommittees on the topics listed:

Citing concern with late filings for goods requiring a Notice of Arrival for Pesticides, EPA noted that the regions were going to start issuing redelivery notices and refusal notices to export. A CSMS on this topic may be forthcoming shortly.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is announcing the implementation of revised Lacey Act provisions. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 amended the Lacey Act to provide that importers submit a declaration at the time of importation for certain plants and plant products. In 2009, APHIS initiated a blanket declaration pilot program to test the feasibility of a monthly "blanket" declaration, with subsequent reconciliation reports, for importers to declare routine or repeat shipments.

NCBFAA has spent the past few months neck deep in understanding the new lay of the land as the November 1st deadline for the TSN Change 6 rules comes ever closer to our industry. After numerous internal meetings and engagements with industry and the government, we are proud to offer our thoughts on the ways in which our members can seek training to be in compliance come November 1st. The 3 training programs that we have reviewed are Gistnet, Veroot and IAC.

On August 14, 2017, CBP issued CSMS 17-000489 which provided that CBP was changing its policy of issuing dunning letters in connection with outstanding bills from 181 days from the date of the bill to 61 days, well within the 180 day protest period, and without regard to whether a protest is pending. The CSMS also provided that scheduled refunds would be diverted to offset pending bills regardless of the whether a protest was filed in connection with the outstanding bill. CBP has indicated that this change was made in response to a directive from OMB to improve their collection rate of supplemental bills.

The governing boards of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles will hold a joint public meeting Nov. 2 to consider approving the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) 2017 Update, which contains far-reaching strategies to further reduce air emissions and support the state's vision for more sustainable freight movement.

This past week, NCBFAA President Geoffrey Powell attended WESCCON. He was on a panel with Victor Gamas from CAAAREM in Mexico, Kim Campbell from CSCB in Canada, Tom Gould from STR Trade Advisory Services, and Celeste Catano from BluJay to discuss NAFTA and North American Single Window. He participated in the Strategic Planning call with the Board Members, Officers, and Committee Chairs as well as outside counsel. On Thursday of last week, he attended a meeting in Charlotte at the International Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers Association of Charlotte and had the opportunity to update the members on issues the NCBFAA was working on their behalf.

On a phone call late Thursday afternoon that included NCBFAA leadership, CBP delivered a checklist that should be helpful in preparing for the upcoming deployments. Covering Statements, MID "Add", Reconciliation, Drawback and FTZ e-14, this checklist has been supplied by the CBP Client Representative Division. We hope that our members find this information valuable, along with last week's CSMS messages that work to move trade forward as we plan for the December 9th and February 28th ACE Schedule G deployments.

Barring Congressional action, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), special program indicator (SPI) "A," "A+" and "A*" will expire for goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse after midnight, December 31, 2017.

To ready the trade for the upcoming December 9, 2017 update to ACE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released a notice on the upcoming deployment of Statements, e214 (electronic Foreign Trade Zone admission), and Manufacturer ID Creation capabilities.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection have released their ACE Trade Update for October. In this issue, you will find information on the latest news on ACE, ACE Portal and Resource Reminders, Tips and Frequently Asked Questions.