Monday Morning eBriefing

The NCBFAA Transportation Committee’s Logistics Subcommittee is regularly collecting data on the nation’s rail delays and port congestion that are impacting the supply chain and your business operations.

Here is a summary of the latest legislative and regulatory transport, logistics and trade sector updates brought to you by our NCBFAA Transportation Counsel firm Venable:

Here is 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) has postponed the deployment of Enhancements to ACE Truck Manifest – Phase 3 from July 11 to July 19 at 5:00 a.m. ET. “This deployment will finalize the modernization of ACE truck manifest functionality and will complete all backend services used for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) processing,” the agency said.

To assist the trade community with compliance with trade remedies under Section 201, 232, and 301, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has provided sources of information to assist with questions on trade remedy issues.

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Trade’s National Commodity Specialist Division and the Office of Trade Relations has announced its lineup of commodity-specific educational webinars for the trade in July. The webinars started in February and will run through September 2022. Each webinar will be approximately an hour.

The Automated Export System (AES) Response Code 66Q was implemented on Jan. 13 as a Compliance Alert, and the Census Bureau announced on July 7 that the response code will be upgraded to Fatal severity, effective July 13, causing the Electronic Export Information (EEI) to be rejected.

The U.S. and Canadian governments on July 7 concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to settle a dispute on trade in solar products under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The PGA Import Reference Tool provides a top-level overview of all PGAs that are involved in the import process, showing the commodities they regulate and their mission, when paper documents or licenses are required, their policy on de minimis shipments, and which agencies have direct hold authority. Most importantly, the PGA Import Reference Tool provides emails and links to the most useful resources you need to understand the filing requirements for each PGA.

Employee expense reimbursement is an area that's sometimes overlooked by business owners. Employees who spend their own money on job-related items often request to be reimbursed for these expenses. In such cases, what should a business cover, and how should reimbursement be handled

President Biden on June 27 signed into effect Presidential Proclamation 10420 which increases the column two rates of duty on certain articles originating from Russia. Effective 30 days from the date of this June 27 proclamation, all products listed in Appendix A to the proclamation will be subject to a duty rate of 35%.

The “Write My Representative” page, located in the “I Want To” section of the hamburger menu/main navigation of the new NCBFAA website, is now available for members to browse and take action on behalf of the customs broker and forwarder industries.

Every customs broker knows that interacting with Partner Government Agencies (PGAs) can be the most challenging part of their job. The PGA data requirements are often demanding. And, on top of that, there are just so many agencies!

NCBFAA Transportation Counsel Ashley Craig, along with Transportation Committee members Melzie Wilson and Rich Roche, held a webinar, “OSRA 22 – What You Need to Know,” on June 28 which was attended by hundreds of Regular Members.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have continued to postpone their “Container Dwell Fee,” and said they will reconsider its possible imposition on July 8.

The NCBFAA Educational Institute (NEI) invites all global logistics professionals to its 8th Annual Global Trade Educational Conference (G·TEC). This two-day event at the InterContinental Magnificent Mile Hotel in Chicago on Aug. 1-2 will give customs brokers, freight forwarders, NVOCCs, OTI, service providers, importers, exporters, and all global logistics professionals an opportunity to update themselves on industry developments and connect with colleagues new and old.

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

NCBFAA will soon open registration for the 2022 Government Affairs Conference (GAC) to be held at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill on Sept. 18-20. Mark your calendar!

On behalf of NCBFAA's Board of Directors, Leadership and Staff, we want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome the following members who have recently joined our association:

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched the “Green Trade Strategy,” a framework to incentivize green trade, strengthen the agency’s environmental enforcement posture, accelerate green innovation, and improve climate resilience and resource efficiency.