Monday Morning eBriefing

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 John W. Dellinger Jr. dba Executive World Wide Consulting and Logistics Plus Customs Broker Solutions 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 USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced a webinar on Feb. 3 at 1 p.m. ET to highlight the New World Screwworm threat. The webinar is intended to raise public and stakeholder awareness, focusing particularly on prevention strategies and reporting requirements.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Jan. 21 announced to the trade that the agency’s Forced Labor Portal is now live. The Forced Labor Portal is a centralized location for importers to submit review requests for shipments detained or excluded for forced labor enforcement.

President Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday morning, Jan. 17, that starting Feb. 1 he will impose a 10% tariff on “any and all goods” imported into the U.S. from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, U.K., the Netherlands, and Finland, increasing the tariff to 25% by June 1.

The NCBFAA Customs Committee and Counsel of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., continue to provide our customs broker members with the latest details regarding the recent Section 232 tariff actions by the Trump Administration related to imports of semiconductor products, as well as reciprocal and Section 232 tariff changes for certain Taiwan products. The Committee will continue sending our members Trump Administration tariff updates and subsequent CBP guidance, as soon as received.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Jan. 16 announced it has updated the ACE certification environment (CERT) to enhance duty calculation validation in response to trade requests. This enhancement is expected to be deployed to the ACE Production (PROD) environment on Feb. 17, the agency said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is making available its draft ACE Implementation Guide (IG) to provide guidance on submitting a PGA Message Set data for imports of tableting or encapsulating machines.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Jan. 15 modified the Sept. 30, 2020, Withhold Release Order (WRO) against palm oil and palm oil products produced in Malaysia by FGV Holdings Berhad, its subsidiaries, and joint ventures. With this modification, the U.S. will no longer detain at ports of entry palm oil and palm oil products produced by FGV.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has updated data requirements for official certificates for imports of FDA-regulated products that contain bovine-, porcine-, or poultry-derived ingredients. Effective immediately, CFIA is requiring the following information in addition to the already existing requirements to be included on FDA-issued "Certificate to a Foreign Government" (CFG) destined for Canada.

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

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 NCBFAA Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) is hearing reports from customs brokers regarding the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Certification of Admissibility (COA) requirements and holds for seafood shipments. Many customs brokers and their importers have encountered confusion and long delays from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) holds.

The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) notified importers and exporters of recent amendments to CITES Appendix I and II species listings. The amendments were adopted by the CITES Conference of the Parties in Uzbekistan in early December 2025. The changes will take effect March 5, 2026.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a message to the trade Jan. 12 said it has released into Production (PROD) ACE an update to the Declared Value and ISO Currency Code fields to be C for Conditional, required for an express bill.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Jan. 14 provided the trade with an updated list of parties which are qualified to pay duties on international mail shipments. The agency notes that duty on international mail shipments must be paid by the international mail carrier or a qualified party acting in lieu of the carrier.

Our industry-leading 2026 NCBFAA Annual Conference at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa in San Antonio, Texas, on April 12-15, 2026, offers more than just three days of insightful conference programming. Brought to registered attendees by our generous sponsors are amazing extra-curricular events and services to make your conference experience most enjoyable.

On behalf of NCBFAA's Board of Directors, Leadership and Staff, we want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome All Borders Incorporated, Amari AI, D&L CHB, DT Logistics (Hong Kong), Lisa L Covington dba Covington Customs Brokerage, and R&R Customs 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!

FIATA on Saturday, Jan. 10, notified the trade that the European Commission has updated the list of “Stop Words”. These terms are deemed to indicate insufficient data quality during the Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) and may lead to automatic filing rejections under Import Control System 2 (ICS2), with potential consequences for supply chain reliability and regulatory compliance.

The U.S. Supreme Court was expected to release its decision on Friday, Jan. 9, related to two pending cases challenging the legality of the issuance of President Trump's IEEPA tariffs, but delayed the release. The court, which returned from its winter holiday on Jan. 9, is now anticipated to announce its IEEPA tariff decision early this week.