CBP finalized five new partnerships that will allow for expanded services at domestic ports of entry, the agency said Dec. 19. CBP was authorized to create "a reimbursable fee agreement program to increase CBP’s ability to provide new or enhanced services on a reimbursable basis to support growth in cross-border trade and travel, ”as part of the 2013 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (see 13051329), it said. The partnerships include El Paso, Texas; the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport; South Texas Assets Consortium; Houston Airport System; and Miami-Dade County.
CBP internal discussions on the "need for security and trade investigation into existing means to retrieve entry information in the context of a liquidation" will require a reevaluation of some existing Great Idea Forms (GIF), said a Trade Support Network (TSN) report for October. " It was agreed that the existing method for posting legal notice of liquidation is outdated, but whether it should be posted in ACE or another government hosted website may be determined by financial considerations," it said.
CBP said its Harmonized System Update 1306 was created Dec. 19, containing 75 ABI records and 19 harmonized tariff records. The update, effective Jan. 1, contains modifications mandated by the Committee for the Statistical Annotation of Tariff Schedules. Adjustments required by the verification of the 2013 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) are also included, CBP said in a CSMS message. The modified records can be retrieved electronically via the procedures indicated in the CATAIR. Further information: Jennifer Keeling, Jennifer.Keeling@dhs.gov.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Dec. 18, 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 addcvd.cbp.gov. (CBP occasionally adds backdated messages without otherwise indicating which message was added. ITT will include a message date in parentheses in such cases.)
The theme for the March 6-7 East Coast Trade Symposium in Washington will be “Increasing Economic Competitiveness Through Global Partnership and Innovation,” said CBP in a notice. The event will be held at the Washington Hilton and will include discussions "regarding CBP’s role in international trade initiatives and partnerships," it said. Further information, including agenda and speakers, will be released later, it said. Registration, which opened Dec. 18 for the event, is available (here).
CBP completed 1,792 total Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) validations, including 480 initial validations and 1,312 revalidations for 2013 as of Dec. 2, it said in an update on program statistics. Validations continue to be down compared to previous years, the update said. There has also been a total of 1,745 suspensions and 1,264 C-TPAT removals.
In the Dec. 18 issue of the CBP Customs Bulletin (Vol. 47, No. 50), CBP published two notices that propose to revoke rulings and similar treatment for the tariff classification of USB flash drives and lanterns.
Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Dec. 18 with 126 rulings, bringing the total number of searchable rulings to 179,901. The most recent ruling is dated 12/05/2013.
CBP plans to implement its second piece of Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) under its new "agile" development program on Jan. 4, the agency said in an update. The implementation will allow for an expansion of the Simplified Entry pilot.
The 2014 annual user fee of $138 for each customs broker permit and national permit held by an individual, partnership, association, or corporation is due by Feb. 21, said CBP in a notice. According to 19 CFR 111.96(c), this user fee is payable for each calendar year at the port through which the broker was issued a permit or at a port referred to in 19 CFR 111.19(c) in the case of a national permit. Note that 19 CFR 111.96(c) also states that if a broker fails to pay the annual user fee by the published due date, the appropriate port director will notify the broker in writing of the failure to pay and will revoke the permit to operate. That notice will constitute revocation of the permit.