Monday Morning eBriefing

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.

Last week, NCBFAA President Geoff Powell lead a call focused on the overlapping needs of the software vendors and brokerage community in conjunction with the upcoming 12/9 ACE release. The NCBFAA is assisting in coordinated communication with CBP to ensure that the trade's development and deployment timeline is agreed to and adhered to. He continued to follow-up on this issue while at WESSCON.

The U.S. unveiled highly controversial proposals at the 4th round of NAFTA negotiations, including a proposal to up the North American content on automobiles to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent and with an added requirement for 50 percent U.S. content. This, along with another proposal to sunset NAFTA after five years unless the three countries agree to renew it, met with strong resistance from Mexico and Canada. The extreme U.S. proposals have many wondering about the fate of NAFTA. With this in mind, we have looked at some of the key issues surrounding a potential U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA. Can the President invoke the withdrawal provision without Congressional approval? If the U.S. withdraws from NAFTA, does the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement take effect again? For a discussion of these issues, see the paper here.

Effective October 12, 2017, the U.S. will formally revoke the country-based sanctions on Sudan, including all of the prohibitions set forth in the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations ("SSR"), 31 CFR Part 538, and all of the Specially Designated National ("SDN") designations. Accordingly, an OFAC general or specific license will no longer be required for U.S. persons to engage in transactions related to Sudan, unless the transaction is prohibited by a separate sanctions program. Persons and property blocked pursuant to the Sudan sanctions program, including the Government of Sudan, will be unblocked.

Importers are increasingly concerned over the potential impact of N. Korean sanctions on imported products from China or elsewhere. A broad sanctions bill (HR 3364) was signed into U.S. law in early August. It includes criminal penalties against any person importing products made in whole or in part by N. Korean labor! It also includes potential sanctions for any individual who purchases such products made from North Korean labor -- even if the workers are in another country legally.

The FDA's Division of West Coast Imports (DWCI) has supplied the trade with detailed guidance when communicating through electronic programs. The document addresses entry reviews, compliance reviews, and message formatting, among other things.

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its long awaited Advanced Notice or Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) soliciting public comments on Routed Export Transactions. Specifically, Census is seeking comments on the clarity, usability, and any other matters related to the regulatory requirements for routed transactions, including the definition of routed export transaction as well as the general responsibilities of the parties involved.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have announced, in the September 28, 2017 edition of the Federal Register, their final ruling adopting, with several changes, proposed amendments to CBP, regulations regarding changes to the in-bond process published in the Federal Register on February 22, 2012. After receiving comments and concerns related to the original proposed rulemaking, CBP has made the following changes:

On September 25, CBP announced a new proposal by the city of Douglas, Arizona had been selected as part of the Donations Acceptance Program. The city proposed a donation of a parking lot and adjacent parcel of undeveloped land directly north of the Raul H. Castro Port of Entry to better enable CBP to implement parking lot security measures, reduce port congestion and provide added commercial vehicle staging in support of Unified Cargo Processing efforts. The Donations Acceptance Program enables CBP and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to explore, foster and facilitate partnerships for port of entry infrastructure and technology improvements.