CBP will hold the 2013 C-TPAT Conference January 8-10, 2013 in the Washington, DC area. The three-day seminar that will be divided into two sessions, one general session day and two workshop days, said CBP. The conference registration will open at noon on Dec. 5. Registration is (here).

CBP issued a guidance for vessels diverted from the Long Beach port of entry due to the strike. The agency said it's aware the strike has been resolved and the information should be used if still necessary.

CBP issued a notice announcing that hundreds of Customs broker licenses are revoked by operation of law, without prejudice, for failure to file the 2012 triennial status report and applicable fee.

CBP's requirement for the arrival of the full in-bond shipment before a subsequent in-bond movement in ACE may require some revision and the agency is working on an update, said a CBP spokeswoman. The agency recently said it needed to put the new policy in place to better track in-bond movements and adjust to programming edits related to the transition to ACE M1: Rail and Sea.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:

CBP submitted its final rule to raise the informal entry limit and remove formal entry requirements for certain articles to the Office of Management and Budget for approval. CBP had proposed the increase in the informal entry limit from its current level of $2,000 to $2,500 in October 2011. The current level was set in 1998, so CBP proposed to increase the limit to account for inflation. The proposed rule also removed the language requiring formal entry for certain articles, because with the limitation of absolute quotas under the Agreement on Textiles and Closing, CBP no longer needs to require formal entry for these articles.

CBP posted a Dec.3 version of its CF 1400 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Entrances) electronic query report of the Vessel Management System (VMS), in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by entrances. CBP also posted a version of its CF 1401 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Clearances) electronic query report of the VMS, in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by clearances.

CBP issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of Dec. 3. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, and tobacco; and certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, OFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, OFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying textile articles and/or other articles; the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted an updated summary of changes for the Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR). Most recently, the following changes to Appendix O on DDTC ITAR Exemption Codes have been posted.

CBP won't "accept any newly-filed continuous or single transaction bonds" for surety 879 (Universal Insurance Company), the agency said in a CSMS message. Universal Insurance Company's authority as an acceptable surety on Federal bonds has been terminated by the Department of the Treasury, it said.