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System of Preferences (GSP), special program indicator (SPI) "A," "A+" and "A*" will expire for goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse after midnight, December 31, 2017.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

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.

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.

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.