Monday Morning eBriefing

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced today that he is drafting legislation to ensure faster cargo releases and increased predictability for industry, improve protection for American innovation and intellectual property, and reduce administrative burden and costs.

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Lacey and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have finally resolved the missing Lacey Act flags for four musical instrument HTS subheadings.

Effective Nov. 1, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have implemented a new “Container Excess Dwell Fee,” payable by ocean common carriers (vessel-operating common carriers or VOCCs). The Container Excess Dwell Fee, introduced to facilitate the easing of unprecedented port congestion, will be assessed for each discharged container transported under a VOCC’s bill of lading that “dwells” on marine terminals beyond a prescribed period depending on the modality of the container, explained NCBFAA Transportation Counsel Ashley Craig. This initiative was developed in coordination with the Biden-Harris Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, U.S. Department of Transportation, and multiple supply chain stakeholders.

The U.S. announced Oct. 31 that it will terminate Section 232 tariffs on a set volume of steel and aluminum products imported from the European Union, while the EU will not proceed with retaliatory tariffs on certain U.S. goods which were scheduled to take effect Dec. 1.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on Oct. 21 published an interim final rule which outlines the progress the U.S. has made in export controls pertaining to cybersecurity items, revised Commerce Control List (CCL) implementation, and requests from the public information about the impact of these revised controls on U.S. industry and the cybersecurity community.

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.

NCBFAA on Oct. 26 submitted detailed comments to the Sept. 10 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding continuing education for licensed customs brokers.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on Oct. 26 issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register signaling its interest in developing future export controls for technologies that interact directly with the human brain, or so-called Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technologies.

As a customs broker, are you processing import entries on products from China currently subject to tariffs? Did those products previously benefit from a tariff exclusion that expired in December 2020 and early 2021? This is your opportunity to make your case on behalf of your clients with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to have the tariff exclusion reinstated.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Oct. 28 deployed the new ACE Availability Dashboard to provide users with “real-time monitoring of the status and availability” of Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) applications. Key features of the enhanced dashboard include:

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:

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has taken steps to end the confusion over APHIS Lacey flagging of wood pallets/containers classified in HTS 4415.20.80.00.

The House Natural Resources Committee has approved HR 3075, the Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Act – legislation which expands the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) to cover all imported seafood and to require detailed supply chain data electronically at entry. Sponsored by Reps. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Garret Graves (R-LA), the bipartisan bill will now go to the House floor for a vote.

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:

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

Many NCBFAA officers, board of directors, committee leaders, and individual members have had the pleasure of working with Drenda Williams on membership development and conference operations during the past 13 years.

Vital to every U.S. customs broker’s business is the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS). So, what is the status of the U.S. implementing the 2022 HTS changes? The NCBFAA Customs Committee reached out to our NCBFAA Legislative Counsel Nicole Bivens Collinson of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, PA for information on what needs to happen in the U.S. for the 2022 changes to be in force.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reminding the trade about the data requirements for the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) for food importers in a recent CSMS message #49761156. For each line entry of food offered for import into the U.S., customs brokers must provide specific details about the “FSVP Importer,” who may or may not be the Importer of Record. Instead, the FSVP importer is defined as:

NCBFAA has retained Nicole Bivens Collinson as Legislative Counsel, effective Oct. 15.