NCBFAA Efforts for Under $800 NAFTA-Wide de Minimis Could Bring Pushback, Lobbyist Says
Reconciling U.S., Mexican and Canadian de minimis levels, and lowering the U.S.’s current $800 level if necessary, could prove difficult within NAFTA renegotations, Jon Kent, a lobbyist for the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, said Sept. 11 during the NCBFAA Government Affairs Conference. While some believe that raised de minimis levels are good for U.S. small businesses, Kent believes that’s a “fairy tale” that rapidly increased imports. “It chews up a lot of business,” Kent said of the U.S.’s now $800 de minimis level.
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NCBFAA is taking the position that “you simply need to reconcile, and if it’s something lower than that, so be it,” Kent said. “I’d say that … we need [the number] to come down in order to succeed in NAFTA negotiations.” Catapulted by e-commerce, de minimis imports have experienced a “dramatic” amount of growth since customs reauthorization legislation boosted the U.S. benchmark from $200 to $800. While an NCBFAA NAFTA position paper distributed during the conference trumpets that a simplified Section 321 ACE entry type would help CBP gain the sufficient data to screen de minimis shipments for anomalies, Kent said he doubts that any serious proposal to require automated de minimis entries across North America would make it to the negotiating table.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative recently signaled support for new NAFTA trade facilitation provisions in stakeholder meetings, Kent said. Kent and others from the association spoke with a USTR customs specialist in recent weeks, during which they heard “a lot” about trade facilitation. “That was music to our ears,” Kent said. “I think we all would like a thin border, a border nonetheless, but a thin one, in terms of the steps that it takes to get goods entered into the United States.” Kent said he assumes that Canadian and Mexican stakeholders will want to engage the U.S. on trade facilitation during NAFTA talks, because their economies have something to gain from more efficient movement of goods. Powell during the conference said NCBFAA has met several times with Canadian and Mexican brokers in coordinating an approach to NAFTA.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the NCBFAA position paper on NAFTA negotiations.