In the Feb. 11 issue of the Customs Bulletin (Vol. 49, No. 6) (here), CBP issued a notice regarding the dates and draft agenda for the 54th Session of the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System Committee (HSC), which will meet in Brussels from March 11-20.
CBP Feb. 18 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 49, No. 7), contains the following ruling actions (here):
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Feb. 13, 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.
A lapse in Department of Homeland Security funding will cut training for new CBP officers, and that's likely to worsen "chronic staffing shortages" at U.S. ports, said National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelly in a Feb. 13 letter to members of Congress, according to a statement released by the union. Cargo processing will also slow, said Kelly. DHS funding will expire on Feb. 28, and Congress is still at an impasse on how to move forward (see 1502120067). The NTEU represents thousands of CBP officers at more than 300 ports.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Feb. 11-12, 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 should improve its communications and outreach related to antidumping and countervailing duties, said the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) in several recommendations approved at its Feb. 11 meeting in San Francisco (here). The agency should use Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS) to keep the trade community apprised of new investigations and scope rulings, said COAC, and should develop outreach for industry sectors beyond importers and domestic industry. CBP should also make improvements to AD/CVD information it has on its website, and should eventually work toward a single multi-agency site dedicated to AD/CVD, said COAC.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Feb. 11, 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 issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
The uncertainty over the Department of Homeland Security’s budget is playing havoc with CBP planning and its employees’ morale, said CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske in opening remarks at the Feb. 11 meeting of the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations. Although front line staff would avoid a furlough if no appropriations legislation is signed into law by Feb. 28, the agency’s back office staff won’t be coming to work, including employees engaged in training and hiring new CBP officers, said Kerlikowske. For CBP employees that avoid furloughs and work unpaid, “those lingering effects of a shutdown on employee morale are extremely significant,” he said. “I don’t think the mortgage company or the hospitals or the doctors or anybody else are too concerned that you’ll be paid later if you just wait.”
Despite expectations to the contrary, no recommendations on the collection of importer bona fides by customs brokers were forthcoming at the Feb. 11 meeting of the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations. Although it had appeared on the agenda (see 1501200017), the report of COAC’s Trade Modernization Subcommittee, which advises CBP's role of the broker activities, said it unfortunately “struggled to come to an agreement as to how the importer can identify themselves to the Customs Broker with an acceptable Bona Fides.” With the end of COAC’s current 13th term, the issue will head to the next term without outgoing role of the broker working group lead Jeff Coppersmith, who is departing the COAC. The advisory committee’s bona fides recommendations had initially been on hold while revisions to CBP Form 5106 were in development (see 13111801). CBP released its proposed revisions in October (see 14100815).