Delegating Customs to DHS to Make Regulatory Process More Efficient, Miller Says
The Treasury Department’s recent delegation of its customs revenue functions to DHS “will make the regulatory process much more efficient and ensure everyone has adequate input,” acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in opening remarks at the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting Dec. 11.
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Issued Oct. 30, Treasury Order 100-20 shifted all customs revenue functions to DHS except for those related to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board, the COAC, the International Trade Data System (ITDS) and the Border Interagency Executive Council (BIEC). That means Treasury no longer will need to sign off on regulations involving customs revenue, including upcoming regulations that set a new framework for de minimis shipments and exempt goods subject to trade remedies, including sections 301 and 232 tariffs, from eligibility for de minimis treatment.
But Treasury will remain “engaged” in those regulatory processes, said Daniel Paisley, Treasury’s senior counsel for tax, trade and tariff policy, in his own remarks at the COAC meeting. “We're still working closely with CBP, with DHS and with the White House on efforts to get those [regulations] right,” he said.
Some specifics remain to be decided. The “precise manner in which” the delegation “will play out in the future will depend on some decisions that haven't been made yet,” Paisley said. For example, still being worked out are the specific “contours” of how Treasury’s tax policy and international affairs offices will remain in trade, including which office will continue to participate in the COAC.
DHS, for its part, is now working internally “to ensure that we have internal processes that are in place” to ensure that it gets “efficient and effective rulemakings out the door and in a proper manner,” said Tasha Reid Hippolyte, DHS deputy assistant secretary for trade and economic competitiveness.
CBP is “working hard” on two of those rulemakings -- the proposed rules on its de minimis framework and the trade remedy exclusion from de minimis treatment, Miller said. “We plan to publish those for public comment soon.”
Nonetheless, “statutory change remains essential” to de minimis, a “system in dire need of reform,” Miller said. “We need to address volume and we need better tools and more information to manage risk in this high threat environment.” CBP continues to “provide technical advice to members of Congress” as legislators consider bills to reform de minimis, he said. “The [21st Century Customs Framework] package as a whole is alive and well.”