COAC Recommends Certification Info Appeal in ACE, ABI
CBP should create a new alert in ACE when importers of merchandise potentially subject to antidumping and countervailing duties may be required to submit a certification that their goods are not subject merchandise, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee said in a recommendation adopted at its quarterly public meeting on Sept. 20.
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The COAC's Intelligent Enforcement Subcommittee, which proposed the recommendation, said that the alert would improve the trade's ability to file accurate entries subject to certification. "The creation and use of this new event should be implemented within one year," it said.
COAC recommended that certification information be shown as events within the ACE Portal and in the Case Events portion of an AD/CVD Case Information Query in the Automated Broker Interface, and include citations and links to additional details like the Federal Register notices that announced the certification requirement. Events should be recorded for each case number, both at the country level (7-digit) and at the 10-digit company level, the recommendation said.
The recommendation focused on certifications arising from situations such as scope or anti-circumvention inquiries, as distinguished from non-reimbursement certifications, for which, the COAC said, creating alerts would be unnecessary.
"The existence of a certification requirement can be something entry filing software may be programmed to identify in order to alert filers of a certification requirement prior to submitting entries," the COAC said in a separate background document published ahead of the COAC meeting. "To accomplish this, we recommend the need for any certification be recorded as an event connected to all applicable AD/CVD cases number(s)."
Currently, when Commerce decides that certain imports subject to AD or CVD orders require the importer to make a certification, notice is usually provided through publication in the Federal Register. The background document noted that the current system makes it difficult for the trade community to remain informed of all certification requirements.
Having notice of a certification requirement available to the trade as part of the ACE and ABI query results would help the trade to file compliant and accurate entries, and would assist CBP by requiring less administrative work by the Centers of Excellence and Expertise import specialists who review the entries, the COAC said in the document.