Monday Morning eBriefing

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

President Trump in a July 22 Truth Social post said in two years that a 100% tariff will be imposed on U.S. generic drug imports regardless of the country of export, with an increase to 200% in two years.

Following the agency's change in the definition of shellfish, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued a series of questions and answers (FAQs) on the current requirements for importing or exporting shellfish. NCBFAA members who handle shellfish for their import-export clients should familiarize themselves with these FAQs.

On behalf of NCBFAA's Board of Directors, Leadership and Staff, we want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome Hashrails, PortVelocity International, and Stable Software, 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 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reminding businesses to protect their Food Facility Registration (FFR) information from potential misuse. The agency has become aware of several issues regarding when registration is required and potential misuse of FFR.

Per ACE Entry Summary Create/Update CATAIR, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) affirmed that additional Importer Declaration (54 Records) are not required for Country of Origins US, VI, GU, AS, UM, PR, or MP for aluminum, steel or copper details after July 16. Prior to July 16, this information is still required.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provided guidance to the trade regarding the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s action imposing 25% tariffs on all imports of Brazil, with certain exemptions, under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, effective July 22. Specifically, this guidance provides instructions to importers, customs brokers, and filers for submitting entries to CBP on articles which are imported from Brazil.

The U.S. and Jordanian governments in Washington, D.C., on July 21 signed an agreement on reciprocal trade. Among the benefits in the agreement, the White House said Jordan will continue to provide duty-free market access for almost all U.S. goods.

President Trump in three proclamations on July 20 said that his administration under Section 338 of the 1930 Trade Act will impose an additional ad valorem duty of 50% on certain products of Canada, effective 12:01 a.m. ET on Aug. 19, in response to Canada’s tariff rate quotas for dairy products, prohibition on imports and sales of U.S. alcoholic beverages, and lack of preferential, duty-free treatment under USMCA for U.S. vehicle imports.

President Trump on July 20 issued a proclamation based on the recommendation of the Commerce Secretary to reduce Section 232 tariff on certain aluminum imports if there are commitments from companies to pursue domestic production.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) notified the trade that it will deploy the implementation of Entry Type 13 Test for U.S. Mail Processing (INT-057) and Mail Entry Type 13 Test (CBP-290) enhancements to ACE on Sept. 22. These enhancements became available in the ACE Certification (CERT) environment on July 24 and will be deployed to the Production (PROD) environment on Sept. 22, the agency said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will meet with its Mexican counterpart in Mexico City on July 21 for the third bilateral negotiating round related to the Joint Review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Negotiating teams will convene for three days to advance discussions on issues regarding trade in steel and aluminum and derivative products, automobiles, economic security, labor, agriculture, and electronic payment services.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) notified the trade that on Saturday, July 18, it will deploy a new validation in ACE for import adjustment offsets for Section 232 duties on automobile and medium and heavy-duty vehicle parts. An updated version of the ACE CATAIR Error Dictionary V51 has been posted under the Supporting Documents: Documentation for Entry Summary Chapters section on CBP.gov.

U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) Judge Richard Eaton on July 15 ordered Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in anticipation of the agency’s Consolidated Administration and Process of Entries (CAPE) Phase 3 in ACE to “reliquidate certain finally liquidated entries," adding that "the order will be entered in each of the approximately 3,700 IEEPA cases assigned to the court."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is now implementing its recent final rule to change the definition of shellfish to include squid, cuttlefish, octopus and other cephalopods. The agency had notified the trade that, effective July 23, wildlife or wildlife products meeting the amended definition of shellfish (such as squid, octopus, and cuttlefish) that are being imported or exported for human, or animal consumption will be exempt from FWS declaration, license, and clearance requirements.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) notified Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that Caruso, Inc., the only import fumigation provider in Virginia treated its last import containers on July 15 and has now closed for business.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) met with NCBFAA Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) leaders to assess the certificate eFiling initiative one week after the "Go-Live." CPSC said they were overall "pleasantly surprised" by the volume of filings in this first week. CPSC was interested to hear of customs brokers' experiences, which generated a useful back-and-forth discussion for both the RAC and CPSC.

Filing a lawsuit now before the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) now appears to be the surest, quickest way to obtain IEEPA tariff refunds on finally liquidated entries, which are currently ineligible for processing under the CAPE refund system. Customs brokers are advised to encourage their importer clients to contact legal counsel to consider filing on their behalf and assist with other options to preserve their right to these refunds.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on July 1 announced that the U.S. has not agreed to renew U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in its current form but will continue engaging with Mexico and Canada to address what it called the agreement’s “shortcomings” and trade deficits with both countries. In practical terms, USMCA remains in force while those issues are worked through—or until it terminates in 2036.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge will officially open on July 27, creating a new high-capacity Canada-U.S. border crossing that is expected to strengthen North American supply chains, enhance trade and transportation efficiency, and support long-term economic growth in the Windsor-Detroit corridor.