The Bureau of Industry and Security and the State Department could issue final rules by early October moving less sensitive articles from the U.S. Munitions List (USML) Category XII (fire control, range finder, optical and guidance and control equipment) to the dual-use Commerce Control List (CCL), Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Eric Hirschhorn said Sept. 15. The rulemaking is in the congressional notification period, which is scheduled to end Sept. 20, said Hirschhorn, speaking at a meeting of the President’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration (PECSEA). BIS and State have also submitted their final rules to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and CCL to delineate types of military aircraft and military gas turbine engines subject to each control list, respectively, for Congressional notification, which bodes well for chances those final rules will be issued before President Barack Obama’s term expires Jan. 30, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Kevin Wolf said. The only engines moving from the CCL to USML under the rule are engines specific to military aircraft, Wolf said.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:​

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:​

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

CBP and the trade community may still not be ready for ACE drawback and reconciliation by Oct. 29, despite CBP’s recent delay of the deadline, customs lawyer Michael Cerny said during a panel discussion at a National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference in Washington Sept. 12. Both systems have been “barely tested,” and software developers still aren’t ready with programming, said Cerny, who chairs the Trade Support Network’s drawback subcommittee. CBP’s CATAIR requirements and business rules still aren’t set with less than two months before the deadline, a situation reminiscent of the approach to CBP’s original November 2015 deadline for all of ACE, he said.

CBP faces a challenging budget environment for ACE as it works to find funding for improvements and new functionalities long desired by the trade community, said Cynthia Whittenburg, deputy executive assistant commissioner at CBP’s Office of Trade, at a National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference in Washington Sept. 12. Following completion of “core” ACE in December, the “funding profile” will “adjust downward” as CBP will be legally required to use ACE operations and maintenance funding for operations and maintenance, and will not be able to use the funds for building new capabilities, including for partner government agencies (PGAs). “So when you see in our appropriations and funding, 'ACE,' those dollars are going strictly to fixing bugs and keeping the system running,” she said.

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

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 6-9 in case they were missed.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will soon begin allowing ACE filing of data required by the agency under an approach that includes several tariff schedule flags with differing filing requirements, said Sheila Einswaller, a senior wildlife inspector at the agency, during the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Government Affairs Conference Sept. 12 in Washington. FWS recently announced the beginning its pilot (see 1605040023), but the test is not a “live functioning pilot at this time” as FWS is still working with developers and CBP to get business rules in place. Though the timing of live piloting is still unknown, FWS has completed the exercise of dividing the tariff schedule into four “buckets,” with different data element requirements for each based on how likely it is that FWS data is required for any given 10-digit subheading, she said.

Work continues on a report due to Congress on how CBP can improve importer verifications through customs brokers after the Department of Homeland Security sent it back to CBP following a review, said Jerry Malmo, director of CBP's Commercial Enforcement Division. DHS sent the report back to CBP because it was "too specific on what our plans were," said Malmo, who spoke Sept. 12 at a National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference. Still, the agency recently started briefing lawmakers on the report, which was due Aug. 22 as part of the customs reauthorization law's Section 116 (see 1608240026).