The Office of the Special Counsel (OSC) filed complaints against three CBP human resources employees alleging that they illegally conspired to hire candidates connected to then-CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin, the OSC said in an April 9 press release. The complaints were filed April 8 with the Merit System Protections Board, a governmental agency that has oversight duties over some federal employee issues. Bersin, now chief diplomatic officer for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is not named in the complaints. The disciplinary actions are OSC’s first complaints against management officials for political discrimination in over 30 years, it said.
CBP should revise its regulations for customs brokers to expand the definition of "corporate compliance activity," the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) said in comments recently filed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). RILA's comments, filed in response to a DHS request for public input on regulatory changes it should consider (see 14022621), focused on a wide range of CBP regulations that the association said deserve review. The retailers were one of only a few commenters that raised customs issues with DHS.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website April 8, 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 released its April 9 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 48, No. 14). While the Bulletin does not contain any ruling articles, it does include recent Court of International Trade decisions.
Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated April 7 with 95 rulings, bringing the total number of searchable rulings to 181,538. The most recent ruling is dated 04/04/14.
As of April 4, importers may request preliquidation refunds of countervailing duty cash deposits paid on entries of frozen warmwater shrimp from China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam, said CBP. Requests must be submitted in writing to the applicable port of entry. If no request for preliquidation refund is submitted, then the CV duty cash deposits will be refunded at the time of liquidation.
Clarification: Proposed changes to CBP Form 5106 have not been finalized and, if the changes are implemented, they would only apply to new CBP Form 5106 filings (see 14040223).
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website April 4, 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 completed 346 total Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) validations, including 82 initial validations and 264 revalidations for 2014 as of April 1, it said in an update on program statistics. There have also been a total of 1,814 suspensions and 1,319 C-TPAT removals.
CBP is looking into merchandise processing fees (MPF) problems for Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Entry Summaries filed with Chapter 98 numbers, said CBP. The agency said it has gotten some reports of filers receiving MPF errors for such filings since CBP's latest deployment of new features within ACE on April 5.