Monday Morning eBriefing

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on Aug. 28 reminded the trade that the only import fumigation provider in Virginia has closed. Until a new fumigation provider is established in the state, any shipments requiring fumigation will be refused and must be re-exported, the agency said.

A summary of the latest legislative and regulatory transport, logistics and trade sector updates brought to you by our NCBFAA Transportation Counsel firm Venable.

A summary of the latest customs and cross-border trade regulatory updates brought to you by our NCBFAA Customs Counsel firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Saturday, Aug. 29, is expected to deploy a bug fix to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) unit of measure rules that can produce a PFX fix. It appears that the fix changes the way the rules require PG26 packing qualifier.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) informed the trade in an Aug. 25 CSMS # 69647661 that on Sept. 25 the severity of Automated Export System (AES) response code 802 (BIS License Tolerance Exceeded) will be changed from verify to fatal. In addition, the Census Bureau on Aug. 26 updated the AES filing requirements for black mass and tungsten waste and scrap.

President Trump on July 8 informed Congress of his intent to rescind Syria’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism following a 45-day pre-notification period. The notification period has now passed and on Aug. 24, the State Department rescinded Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. The Treasury Department on Aug. 24 additionally launched Operation Economic Outcast increasing sanctions on Iran.

NCBFAA is excited to announce that Customs and Border Protection's Diane Sabatino, Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations, and Susan Thomas, Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Trade, will deliver the luncheon keynote on Monday, Sept. 28, at the Government Affairs Conference (GAC) in Washington, D.C. NCBFAA President Karen Damon will moderate this keynote in a fireside chat format.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Aug. 27 provided guidance on updating the order of reporting in ACE to report multiple HTSUS classifications for an article on the same entry summary line when a Chapter 98 or 99 HTSUS classification is required and/or applicable.

On behalf of NCBFAA's Board of Directors, Leadership and Staff, we want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome ICL USA and Transitify Global, which have recently joined our association. We're so excited to have these firms join our organization and we are happy to assist in any way we can!

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Aug. 26 announced that the agency has ended its "Flying Trucks" process, effective immediately. The program was initiated during the mid-to-late 2000s to test functionality between truck eManifest and Multi-Modal Manifest (MMM) capabilities. The agency had intended to sunset this process upon the full implementation of MMM capabilities in 2009. CBP said it “now determines that this process violates current regulatory requirements.”

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in an Aug. 25 update to the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) reported that as of 3 p.m. ET on Friday, Aug. 21, approximately 26.4 million entries with IEEPA duties were processed through the agency’s Consolidated Administration and Process of Entries (CAPE) since the ACE program’s launch on April 20, accounting for $132.5 billion in both potential and certified refunds. However, CBP told the CIT that it has “temporarily delayed the deployment of CAPE Phase 3, which covers finally liquidated entries filed by plaintiffs for which the Court has ordered reliquidation."

The Canadian government on Aug. 25 announced the imposition of “dollar for dollar” import tariffs on U.S. products, effective 12:01 a.m., Sept. 8, to match the U.S. government’s recent imposition of 50% Section 338 tariffs on certain Canadian goods.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has advised the trade of an updated version of the ACE CATAIR Error Dictionary V52 which has been posted under the Supporting Documents: Documentation for Entry Summary Chapters section on CBP.gov. This update adds a new validation that prevents filers from submitting a Post Summary Correction (PSC) for a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) entry type 06 if the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) HTS is modified in any way.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) late Friday evening, Aug. 21, after trade talks between the U.S. and Canada collapsed issued guidance to importers, customs brokers, and filers on filing entries to the agency on certain imports from Canada entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. ET on Aug. 22, as provided in the HTSUS under headings 9903.03.12–9903.03.16.

It is with profound sadness that NCBFAA notifies our membership of the recent passing of Commodore “C.” Harvey Monk, Jr., in Clayton, North Carolina, on July 31. He was 78. During his tenure as the Census Bureau Foreign Trade Division Chief, Monk led the development of the Automated Export System (AES) during the 1990s and early 2000s until his retirement in 2010. Harvey was highly engaged with NCBFAA on AES matters over the years and was a frequent speaker at the Annual and Government Affairs Conferences until his retirement.

NCBFAA on Aug. 21 submitted comments to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) related to the agency’s June 25 Federal Register notice which proposed revisions by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS) to the Certification of Admissibility (COA) form under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Specifically, the NCBFAA Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) welcomes the NOAA/NMFS’ proposal to automate the COA process.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on Aug. 21 announced an update to its Import Federal Order to further protect the U.S. from potato wart (Synchytrium endobioticum). These updates mainly affect U.S. facilities that import bulk shipments of potatoes from Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, for processing, packaging, and repackaging.

The NCBFAA Customs Committee AD/CVD Working Group has officially rolled out critical updates to its AD/CVD Certification Tool (Note: Regular Member credentials required to access). Designed to help customs brokers, freight forwarders, and importers successfully navigate complex trade compliance mandates, the latest matrix incorporates a series of recent regulatory updates and anti-circumvention determinations.

The 2026 NCBFAA Government Affairs Conference at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 27-29 offers an amazing opportunity to member attendees to learn about timely and critical industry changes influenced by Capitol Hill lawmakers, the White House, and federal regulators. However, Regular Member attendees are also strongly encouraged to stay through Wednesday, Sept. 30, to attend the onsite Customs Committee meeting from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. ET and the Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) meeting with the PGAs from 1:30-3:30 p.m. ET.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it is modernizing ACE ocean, rail, and air manifest systems over several releases, with the second release of this enhancement (INT-061) being a technical migration of back-end functionality for the rail mode of transportation.