CBP Looking at 'Simplified Processes,' Manufacturer ID Harmonization Among Future Initiatives
While the Automated Commercial Environment transition remains the focus of CBP's trade efforts, the agency is also considering some new initiatives to follow the move to ACE, said Cynthia Whittenburg, CBP executive director for trade policy and programs on June 1. Whittenburg discussed several of the items the agency is looking at while on a panel during an American Association of Exporters and Importers conference. Whittenburg pointed to updated definitions for identifier codes and account-based simplified processes among potential future work.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Harmonizing the definition of unique identifiers for manufacturers and producers across the government agencies will be “key,” said Whittenburg. There's sometimes a difference of opinions between CBP and other agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, as to what constitutes the manufacturer, she said. While “significant,” it may be a “longer term” action as there will be consideration of the international community and the World Customs Organization.
The planned completion of ACE in 2016 only marks the “end of the beginning,” said Whittenburg. Whittenburg said there's already some important modernization work started on "Simplified Processes,” which is meant to help move cargo processing, including entry decisions and revenue collections, away from the border. For example, CBP and the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations are looking at using monthly summaries and monthly statements, which would allow for less transaction-based processing, she said. This would allow CBP to reduce the liability involved within a transaction if the agency can liquidate the underlying entries that would otherwise be held due to concerns with an individual entry, she said. While not perfect for everyone, there may be a subset of importers that this makes sense for, she said. Considering the long lead time it requires for necessary future regulatory and legislative changes, it's time to start conversations and work to advance customs changes in Congress and “Customs Modernization Act Two.”
There's some concern from the customs broker standpoint on the monthly summary concept as to how the information will be “crunched” and the data will be managed, said Madeleine Veigel, director for customs in the Americas at Expeditors International. Some single transactions already include large amounts of information, so it might be tough to deal with an entire month's worth, she said. Also, with CBP Form 7501 going away with ACE, there's also some uncertainty as to how the brokers will provide such information to the importer, she said.
Enforcement will continue to be a big area of consideration as work on free trade agreements moves forward, said Whittenburg. CBP is starting to have a somewhat new role as countries that are parties to FTAs with U.S. recently started sending officials to perform verifications prior to export to those countries, said Whittenburg. While the FTAs always allowed for such procedures, few countries took part, so it may be something the agency will need to think about as the practice grows, she said. The U.S. must be careful in adding new enforcement measures, said Ted Sherman, director of Global Trade Services at Target. For instance, there's some concerns with the term “evasion” within Customs Reauthorization legislation, he said. “Our government partners need to be aware of the fact that there are mistakes, there are misunderstandings” and “not everything is evasion,” he said.
CBP is also looking to improve use of the “management by account” concept and the Centers of Excellence and Expertise will likely be a big part of the maturation process, said Whittenburg. Part of that will be the consideration of future benefits for participation within the CEEs, which will eventually handle cargo processing across the HTS spectrum, divided up by industry, she said. Once the CEEs are fully ramped-up, the question becomes, “How do we handle different those entities that have demonstrated and invested” to be part of the CEEs,” she said. Whittenburg is hopeful that agency can offer more than a reduction in sending out CBP Form 28s, she said. Target, an early participant with the CEEs program, has benefited from engaging with the same individuals rather than multiple ports, said Sherman. Sometimes, though, following informal discussions, the company has requested a CF 28 in order to formalize the interactions, he said. There's a big question still on how well CBP will be able to maintain consistency once the CEEs take on all imports.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of Whittenburg's presentation on CBP's future efforts.