Customs Bill Implementation Progressing Well Despite Some Missed Deadlines, Kerlikowske Says

During the trade enforcement hearing (here), Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., and member Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, asked Kerlikowske about how his agency plans to meet TFTEA-related deadlines more efficiently. CBP is checking items off a spreadsheet it created to track what reporting and training requirements, regulations and rules under the bill it has accomplished and still needs to complete, Kerlikowske said. Among the overdue items is a report on how CBP can improve importer verifications through customs brokers, which was due Aug. 22 (see 1609130018). A Senate Finance Committee spokesperson in a Sept. 27 email said the committee still hasn't received the report. The House Ways and Means Committee didn't immediately comment.

Tiberi expressed concern with how CBP’s new antidumping and countervailing duty evasion processes (see 1608190014) under TFTEA addressed the law’s requirement that the CBP commissioner determine whether reviewed merchandise entered the U.S. through duty evasion within 300 days after an investigation is started. “In the discussion section, CBP seems to imply these rules are aspirational,” Tiberi said. “In our opinion, there is no flexibility under this statute and these deadlines.” Kerlikowske said CBP wants to follow all the set timelines, and that he wasn’t aware of any previous notion that the rule made the requirement seem “aspirational,” as opposed to fact-based, and that he’d further look into the interim final rule’s language. The interim final rule states that CBP would notify all parties to an investigation about any needed investigation extension within that 300-day window.

Tiberi also highlighted a bill Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced earlier this month that would require shipments from foreign countries through the U.S. postal system to provide advance electronic data to CBP about packages before they cross into the U.S. (see 1609080047). Tiberi introduced parallel legislation, which is designed partly to stop illicit opioid shipments from entering the U.S. Kerlikowske said he’d work with the subcommittee to advance the bill. Kerlikowske said the legislation would help CBP gather digital data in advance of postal shipments’ passage into the U.S., and cited advantages of current programs such as advance airplane passenger screening information and pre-load maritime cargo manifests sent 72 hours in advance. CBP is also working to implement provisions for seizing and/or forfeiting any technologies or devices imported into the U.S. to circumvent U.S. copyright laws, as required by Feb. 24, 2017, Kerlikowske said.

Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., challenged Kerlikowske on CBP’s implementation of TFTEA Section 605, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to deposit certain interest earned on AD and CV duties by CBP after Sept. 30, 2014, into a designated account, for later distributions to affected domestic producers. Boustany said U.S. crawfish producers are collecting overdue duty payments from CBP at a slow rate, as bond insurers are making payments slowly. Recently, CBP experienced a breakthrough in recovering $6 million from one insurance company, but the agency deducted 90 percent of that to pay itself self-interest, Boustany said. He said CBP is ignoring Section 605 as written, and “putting its own wishful analysis in place to continue to hold onto this interest.” Kerlikowske responded that "a lot of progress has been made” and that there is “another substantial amount of money in the works.” CBP has gone to a collection agency to look into whether it could assist the federal agency in recouping unpaid duties, Kerlikowske said. “We want as prompt action as possible,” Boustany said. “If America’s going to lead in trade, we have to have enforcement of our laws, and they have to be enforced with the intent that Congress lays out."