After serving for five years on the FMC, Commissioner William P. Doyle has announced his intention to leave the Commission effective January 3, 2018. Nominated to the post by President Barack Obama, he was confirmed for his first term on January 1, 2013, and for his second term on January 29, 2015.

NCBFAA's Regulatory Agencies Committee and the FDA have been working in partnership for over 5 years on the development of filer review guidelines that are fair, equitable and uniform across all 5 FDA US districts. In conjunction with this collaboration, FDA has offered NCBFAA's members the opportunity to participate in a pilot of these filer review guidelines between January to mid-February 2018. The guidelines are currently still in draft form but will be released to eligible potential participants upon request.

The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 (FSMA) directed the FDA to better protect public health by adopting a modern, preventive, and risk-based approach to food safety regulation. The FDA's final rule, Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food (Sanitary Transportation rule), establishes requirements for shippers, loaders, carriers by motor vehicle and rail vehicle, and receivers engaged in the transportation of food, including food for animals, to use sanitary transportation practices to ensure the safety of the food they transport.

The results of CBP's October 25th Customs Broker Exam as well as the answer key and remedies available for the folks who were unsuccessful will be sent to test takers this week (the week of the 27th). The NCBFAA worked diligently with CBP to try and find a remedy for the issues experienced during the exam and we hope that our colleagues and future members are well served by our efforts.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday last week and a great start to their holiday season. As it was a short week, NCBFAA Executive Vice President Megan Montgomery dedicated a majority of her time to internal administration of the Association and preparation for a busy December of traveling. She looks forward to see everyone at either the upcoming Florida Brokers Conference of the America's or CBP's East Coast Trade Symposium. The Association continued to monitor the progress on ACE stabilization and the upcoming deployments. We are planning for the future with a staff wide meeting on how our website can better serve members over the upcoming year. If you have any thoughts on the current website (content, layout, ease of use, organization, etc.) please shoot Megan an email between now and December 8th so we can have the best staff discussion possible about how to best meet our member's needs.

Many freight forwarders, brokers, and U.S. companies are not aware of the best kept secret within the federal government. It's a tool available to help thousands of businesses expand and grow through selling their products and services internationally. The sole purpose of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is to help American businesses grow through exporting. That is why the NCBFAA is providing an opportunity to learn more about EXIM -- America's official export credit agency. EXIM empowers U.S. companies to fight for and win more international sales through providing working capital, insurance, and loan guarantees. In fact, EXIM is already providing trade finance support to many freight forwarders, including NCBFAA member firm World Commerce Forwarding, and exporters like ATN Industries.

The submission period for the 2018 CBP triennial status report and fee for all licensed customs brokers opens Dec. 15, 2017, and runs through Feb. 28, 2018.

NCBFAA has been monitoring the ACE downtime over the past 24 hours. While we are pleased that CBP was able to get ACE back up and running by 11 pm ET, we have continuing questions on downtime policies and procedures, the communication channels for those downtime producers, and port uniformity of downtime procedures. For more information about the initial CBP communications, please see CSMS message #17-000714.

The Federal Maritime Commission today announced January 16 and 17, 2018 as the dates it will hold public hearings to receive testimony from maritime industry witnesses regarding a petition filed by the Coalition for Fair Port Practices (Petition P4-16) that raised issues associated with detention, demurrage, and per diem charges.

In CSMS message #17-000718, CBP says it "intends to provide on a national basis one additional day for payments attempted to be made on November 14, 2017. CBP will work with members of the trade community that were impacted by this outage. If needed, CBP will provide support on an individual basis and address any payment issues during this outage.

The NCBFAA Customs Committee and Counsel of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A. is tracking the outcome of U.S.-Vietnam trade deal, ongoing U.S.-Canadian trade discussions, and CBP tariff guidance updates for the association's customs broker members and their importer clients.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), effective July 1, revoked the Syria Sanctions as authorized in Executive Order (EO) 14312.

On July 16 at 2 p.m. ET, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will hold a special “virtual office hours” session to discuss challenges and experiences of customs brokers and industry members who have participated in the CPSC e-Filing pilot.

With so much focus on trade in Washington, D.C., these days, NCBFAA anticipates that the 2025 Government Affairs Conference (GAC) in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7-9, will sell out of our room block at the Grand Hyatt Washington well before the room rate cut-off date of Aug. 7.

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

The NCBFAA Customs Committee and Counsel of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A. is tracking the outcome of U.S.-Vietnam trade deal, ongoing U.S.-Canadian trade discussions, and CBP tariff guidance updates for the association's customs broker members and their importer clients.

On July 16 at 2 p.m. ET, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will hold a special “virtual office hours” session to discuss challenges and experiences of customs brokers and industry members who have participated in the CPSC e-Filing pilot.

With so much focus on trade in Washington, D.C., these days, NCBFAA anticipates that the 2025 Government Affairs Conference (GAC) in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7-9, will sell out of our room block at the Grand Hyatt Washington well before the room rate cut-off date of Aug. 7.

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 7 Star Logistics Solutions, Farris Customs Brokers, Infinito Global Trade Network, and Karl Gross Logistics (USA), 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 NCBFAA Customs Committee and Counsel of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A. is tracking the outcome of U.S.-Vietnam trade deal, ongoing U.S.-Canadian trade discussions, and CBP tariff guidance updates for the association's customs broker members and their importer clients.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), effective July 1, revoked the Syria Sanctions as authorized in Executive Order (EO) 14312.

FIATA’s new Best Practice Guide on Maritime Contracting helps freight forwarders navigate this landscape by clarifying the implications of acting under different capacities when engaging with ocean carriers.

On July 16 at 2 p.m. ET, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will hold a special “virtual office hours” session to discuss challenges and experiences of customs brokers and industry members who have participated in the CPSC e-Filing pilot.

With so much focus on trade in Washington, D.C., these days, NCBFAA anticipates that the 2025 Government Affairs Conference (GAC) in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7-9, will sell out of our room block at the Grand Hyatt Washington well before the room rate cut-off date of Aug. 7.