Electronics Groups Stop Gray Market 'Known Importer' COAC Recommendation

The Electronic Components Industry Association and other trade groups stopped an industry recommendation from going forward for a CBP pilot program that would test a new approach to gray market imports, the ECIA said in a June 26 news release. The ECIA, the Semiconductor Industry Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spoke against the recommendation during a recent Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) Intellectual Property Rights Working Group session, the ECIA said. Gray market products are imported goods that were intended for sale outside the U.S. The proposed "Known Importer Program" for gray market products "would have established a known importer status for unauthorized sellers to bypass detention and inspection of shipments at the borders," the ECIA said. "The proposal called for trade associations to administer the program by designating which of its members met the program’s criteria for a known importer. The proposal, if it had been adopted, would have set up a pilot program to test the concept for importers of electronic components." The COAC is made up of industry members that make recommendations to CBP, which ultimately decides whether a COAC-endorsed initiative will be taken up. CBP and a co-chair of the COAC Trade Enforcement and Revenue Collection Subcommittee, which the IPR Working Group is part of, didn't immediately comment. "This proposal would have seriously impaired the integrity of the authorized distribution channel for electronic components," said Robin Gray, ECIA general counsel. "Our zealous opposition to the proposal was clearly a determining factor in the [IPR working group's] decision not to recommend the program."