CBP is now using audits in some cases to make sure e-commerce importers are compliant with the regulations, John Leonard, acting executive assistant commissioner for trade, said while speaking during a Coalition of New England Companies for Trade conference May 13. “We have begun to utilize them in the small package space, but it's baby steps,” he said. Many of the “stakeholders are not traditional importers that will have a normal set of auditable books and records that we're used to with larger entities.”
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from May 3-7 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP saw a record 38 million Type 86 entries in April, said Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls, who was speaking virtually to the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference on May 5. That's still not capturing the full scope of small packages that come into the U.S. under de minimis, which tops 600 million.
CBP will take a look at how it can bring foreign-trade zones into the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, Thomas Overacker, CBP executive director-cargo and conveyance security, said April 28 during the virtual National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones spring seminar. “We've committed to explore how we can incorporate FTZs into the CTPAT program,” he said. “We've long considered the documentation and internal controls of your industry as best practices for security and supply chain integrity. It only makes sense that you receive the recognition that you deserve.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai heard many bipartisan complaints about the pain of both Section 301 tariffs and Europe's retaliatory tariffs in response to steel tariffs, but stood her ground on both during a hearing in front of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from April 12-16 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Office of Management and Budget should restart consideration of a proposal to end the de minimis exemption for goods subject to Section 301 tariffs, the National Council of Textile Organizations said in an April 14 letter to acting OMB Director Robert Fairweather. The review of the proposal began at OMB last year (see 2009040026) but was removed as part of a broad regulatory freeze after President Joe Biden took office (see 2101210039). OMB should reopen the review and “grant approval to this much needed change in CBP regulations,” NCTO said.
The Commerce Department issued the final results of its countervailing duty administrative review on heavy-walled rectangular welded pipes and tubes from Turkey (C-489-825). Commerce found the only company under review, Ozdemir Boru Profil San. Ve Tic. Ltd. Sti, received de minimis illegal subsidies during the period of review, assigning it a zero percent CV duty rate. Subject merchandise from Ozdemir entered Jan. 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2018, will be liquidated without any assessment of CV duties, and future entries of subject merchandise from Ozdemir will not be subject to CV duty cash deposit requirements until further notice. Changes to cash deposit rates from these final results take effect April 14, the date these final results are set for publication in the Federal Register.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
An importer of garments that were detained by CBP due to the suspected involvement of North Korean nationals in the production was unable to sufficiently show forced labor wasn't used, CBP said in a recently released ruling dated March 5. The use of North Korean labor is considered to be forced labor under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (see 1711070046). The ruling marks the first one directly focused on forced labor since 2002 (see 2001070033), according to CBP's rulings database.