CBP released its Feb. 11 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 49, No. 6) (here). While it does not contain any rulings, it does include recent CBP notices and Court of International Trade decisions.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Feb. 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.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Feb. 9, 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 posted its draft agenda and other documents (here) for the upcoming Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) meeting on Feb. 11, which include extensive recommendations on antidumping and countervailing duty outreach and the automation of export licensing. The draft agenda is (here). A list of draft recommendations is (here).
The CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) is no longer on board with a long-mooted pilot program to test voluntary disclosures for intellectual property rights violations, according to documents posted in advance of the committee’s Feb. 11 meeting in San Francisco (here) and (here). The program would have instituted a disclosure process for merchandise that the importer originally thought was legitimate but turned out to be counterfeit. In draft recommendations for the upcoming meeting, COAC’s Trade Enforcement and Revenue Subcommittee now says the program should be shelved because of legal concerns, as well as a lack of benefits for importers.
CBP is easing documentation requirements for goods imported from U.S. insular possessions other than Puerto Rico, in a final rule that takes effect March 13 (here). The agency will no longer require that a customs official at the port of export in the U.S. insular possession verify and sign CBP Form 3229, Certificate of Origin for U.S. Insular Possessions. Additionally, importers will no longer have to present the form with each entry; instead importers will have to maintain the certificate in their records and present them at CBP’s request. The form will still be listed on the “(a)(1)(A)” list under 19 CFR 163, so importers will still be subject to the recordkeeping penalties if it cannot be produced, said CBP.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Feb. 6, 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:
CBP officers and Consumer Product Safety Commission investigators confiscated more than 156,000 hazardous toys and over 15,000 counterfeit folding knives at the Port of Baltimore in two separate shipments during September and December 2014, CBP said on Feb. 6. CPSC determined the toys contained lead and controlled phthalates at levels that are harmful to children, said CBP. In 2008, CPSC lowered the acceptable level of lead to 0.009 percent in paint and other surface coatings. The agency also bans the sale, import or distribution of toys that contain more than 0.1 percent of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), or benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), the statement said. The knife imports came from China, and CBP said the retail value of the products would total nearly $190,000 if they were authentic.
CBP issued an interim rule (here), effective Feb. 10, that amends its regulations to implement the customs-related provisions of the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement (AUFTA). Although the agreement entered into force in 2005, CBP had not yet issued implementing regulations. Comments on the interim rule are due April 13.