CBP's Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers with the Miami Seaport Trade Enforcement Team confiscated 11,165 counterfeit watches valued collectively at about $2.8 million, CBP said in a press release June 12 (here). The watches originated in China and were intended for distribution in Florida. Upon arrival in Miami, the OFO officers noticed the counterfeit watches "did not appear to be of the quality consistent with the watches that are normally manufactured by the trademark holder," said CBP.
In the June 10 issue of the CBP Customs Bulletin (Vol. 49, No. 23) (here), CBP published notices that propose to revoke or modify rulings and similar treatment for the tariff classification of footwear and planters made from coconut fibres.
Numerous Importer Security Filings did not process June 13 and 14, said CBP in a CSMS message (here).
"The processing of all the messages from this outage has been stopped and now all current message processing should be back to normal," said CBP. ISF filers that didn't get a response during the outage should resubmit the filing, said CBP.
The members of the World Customs Organization elected Ana Hinojosa, CBP deputy assistant commissioner in the Office of International Affairs, as director of Compliance and Facilitation during the June 11-13 WCO Council meeting, said the WCO in a press release (here). Hinojosa's five-year term comes at an important time at the WCO, which will help implement the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement (see 1505070040). Two other directors were elected, the intergovernmental body said. Ping Liu of China was elected as director for Tariff and Trade Affairs and Ernani Checcucci of Brazil won the election for director of Capacity Building, said the WCO. Zouhair Chorfi of Morocco was also re-elected as chairperson of the Council and the WCO added Palestine as its 180th member, it said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
In the June 10 issue of the CBP Customs Bulletin (Vol. 49, No. 23) (here), CBP published notices that propose to revoke or modify rulings and similar treatment for the tariff classification of unfinished duvet covers and ball chairs.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website June 10, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.
CBP recently stopped two newly identified species of insects in imported produce shipments, the agency said in a June 8 press release (here). The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the shipments, a species of weevil and a species of grasshopper, were not previously seen in the U.S. CBP called for fumigation of all the shipments, excluding plantains, it said.
CBP released the June 10 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 49, No. 23), which contains the following ruling actions (here):
CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske will meet with customs officials from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom in Brussels as part of a trip to the city for World Customs Organization elections, said an agency spokeswoman (here). He will attend the WCO Council Meeting to take part in the elections of several WCO positions, said CBP. CBP's Ana Hinojosa is up for the position of Director of Compliance and Facilitation (see 1505070040). Kerlikowske will also sign a Cooperation Agenda with Canada Border Services Agency President Luc Portelance during the visit, she said. He will also sit in on a law enforcement working group when he arrives in the Hague, Netherlands, and meet with the Director of Europol, Rob Wainwright, said the spokeswoman.