Monday Morning eBriefing

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told NCBFAA Regulatory Affairs Committee (RAC) members that use of the term "UNK" (representing "unknown") will not be allowed for food imports in place of a valid DUNS number for in the Unique Facility Identifier field for the FSVP importer, starting July 2022.

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on June 8 amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to reflect the formal end by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year of its participation in the Arab League Boycott of Israel.

The White House on June 8 announced key findings from recent supply chain reviews and recommended a series of actions to strengthen American supply chains to promote economic security, national security, and increase jobs.

The Senate on June 8 passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act to help the U.S. compete with China. A focus of the bill is investing more than $200 billion over the next five years into scientific research and technology. The legislation combines several bills from different Senate committee jurisdictions, including the Endless Frontier Act (Commerce Committee), Strategic Competition Act (Foreign Relations Committee), and Trade Act of 2021 (Finance Committee).

Changes to two Customs and Border Protection (CBP) rulings will eliminate Section 301 tariffs on certain watch cases made in China and affect continued eligibility for duty preferences when these components are manufactured under free trade agreements or preference programs incorporating a substantial transformation rule of origin test.

USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Plant Inspection Stations are reminding customs brokers to expect correction requests through the ACE for cargo destined for a Plant Inspection Station. Brokers will first receive an APHIS automated "May Proceed" notification followed by either a request to correct or update their APHIS Core Message Set, as necessary.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has noticed a significant increase in truck secondary processing due to trips containing more than 100,000 bills of lading (BOLs). The current truck system (R4) is not programmed to process extremely large shipments. 

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:

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) CTPAT Program is excited to announce that the University of Houston Study has concluded, and the report is now available for viewing. This report, titled "Assessment of Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) Program," is available for download here.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on June 1 notified the trade of a change to the bonding policy for a drawback accelerated payment (AP).

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on June 2 announced the suspension of one-year Section 301 investigations of Digital Service Taxes (DSTs) adopted by Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

The U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR) 30.26 require filing in the Automated Export System (AES) for an aircraft that is moving as a good pursuant to sale or transfer from ownership in the United States to ownership abroad and meets the definition of a shipment under 30.1 of the FTR.

The Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System (AIM) enhancement was deployed on May 27 to the certification environment to collect an Aluminum License for articles of aluminum subject to safeguard measures.

The NCBFAA Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) has been approached by FishWise, a non-profit sustainable seafood consultancy, seeking perspectives from businesses involved in the seafood supply chain on ways to improve SIMP implementation.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in a June 1 Federal Register notice that it has added regulations to implement a Feb. 10 Burma-related Executive order.

Treasury Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo participated in a June 2 virtual roundtable discussion with representatives from organizations and associations, including NCBFAA, to discuss impacts of sanctions on their operations.

When Customs and Border Protection (CBP), or any other federal agency for that matter, suspends or "debars" a person, it excludes that person from participating in certain federal transactions, such as government contracts, subcontracts, grants, cooperative agreements, scholarships, fellowships, contracts of assistance, loans, loan guarantees, and subsidies.

The U.S. Senate is preparing to pass a major bill in support of science and technology, which also has key trade components of interest to NCBFAA members. The House is working on a comparable bill.

At the request of NCBFAA's Customs Committee and Customs Counsel, CBP now has posted contact information for its Broker Management Officers (BMOs) across the country. The list can be found here.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on May 26 passed the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021 by a vote of 20-0. The bi-partisan bill will now head to the full Senate for consideration. NCBFAA's Legislative Counsel Whitmer & Worrall highlighted the following provisions that are important to the association's membership: