People or companies that are debarred or suspended by CBP aren't allowed to use a continuous bond for customs activity "unless a continuous bond is the only form of bond acceptable for that activity," CBP said in a May 21 CSMS message. Effective May 11, Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller "revoked the authority of all CBP officials to permit a person who is suspended or debarred by CBP to meet the bond requirements of any customs activity using a continuous bond, for the duration of that person’s suspension or debarment," CBP said. For entities debarred or suspend by other federal agencies, "the Office of Trade, Trade Policy and Programs, is authorized to evaluate and decide, either categorically or on a case-by-case basis," whether the use of a continuous bond is allowed.
A task force made up of government and industry representatives developing legislative language under CBP's 21st Century Customs Framework effort "have signed nondisclosure agreements," said John Leonard, acting executive assistant commissioner for trade, while speaking during a Foreign Trade Association World Trade Week event May 20. That "limits them to a certain extent," though "communications can happen via associations through members back up to the task force, so it's not going to be completely done in a vacuum." The NDAs were necessary "to make this thing actually be able to function in reality and get stuff done before it becomes law," he said.
CBP allowed for the release of some styles of men's shirts imported by Uniqlo that were detained over the suspected use of cotton from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in China because the shirts were not made of cotton, the agency said in a May 18 ruling. The ruling, HQ H318835, discloses that CBP detained a second Uniqlo shipment over a possible XPCC connection. The first detention was mentioned in another recent ruling, in which CBP said Uniqlo hadn't sufficiently shown XPCC cotton wasn't used (see 2105130031). The ruling wasn't available on the CBP rulings database as of press time May 20.
CBP allowed for the release of some styles of men's shirts imported by Uniqlo that were detained over the suspected use of cotton from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in China because the shirts were not made of cotton, the agency said in a May 18 ruling. The ruling, HQ H318835, discloses that CBP detained a second Uniqlo shipment over a possible XPCC connection. The first detention was mentioned in another recent ruling, in which CBP said Uniqlo hadn't sufficiently shown XPCC cotton wasn't used (see 2105130031). The ruling wasn't available on the CBP rulings database as of press time May 20.
Kingtom Aluminio SRL, a Dominican Republic aluminum extrusion company, is under Enforce and Protect Act investigation by CBP over suspected antidumping and countervailing duty evasion, CBP said in a notice posted May 19. The Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee, represented by Robert DeFrancesco of Wiley, filed the allegation against the company. Kingtom is already involved in other EAPA cases (see 2104280032), some of which are being litigated over at the Court of International Trade (see 2105180055).
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Golf clubs are commonly made with components from multiple countries of origin and may be subject to additional tariffs, depending on the origin, CBP said in a May 18 CSMS message. That is why importers of completed golf clubs are required to include origin information for each component, it said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for May 10-14 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from May 10-14 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP is now using audits in some cases to make sure e-commerce importers are compliant with the regulations, John Leonard, acting executive assistant commissioner for trade, said while speaking during a Coalition of New England Companies for Trade conference May 13. “We have begun to utilize them in the small package space, but it's baby steps,” he said. Many of the “stakeholders are not traditional importers that will have a normal set of auditable books and records that we're used to with larger entities.”