CBP, Treasury Working on Final TFTEA Drawback to Meet December Deadline
Final regulations on drawback under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act are now being developed to meet the court-ordered Dec. 18 deadline for those rules (see 1810120055), said Emily Simon, a lawyer with CBP who spoke during an Oct. 31 conference call about drawback. CBP received comments on its proposed rules in September (see 1809190005). "We have indeed reviewed those in depth as part of the adjudication process" and CBP and Treasury have been "working extensively to prepare that final rule, which is in process right now," Simon said.
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CBP officials also discussed its updated issue tracker document. One such issue involves drawback claims migrated from the Automated Commercial System that must be amended in ACE but go beyond the 5,000-line limit per section, said Tonya Perez of CBP's Trade and Transformation Office. "You can now file an ACE core claim to amend a previously filed ACS claim that was migrated into ACE, but when you file it, you have to meet all the requirements that core requires," Perez said. That may require some information that wasn't necessary when the claim was initially filed, she said.
One call participant expressed concern for having to "recreate" some of the data that is required in ACE but wasn't required in ACS. Michael Cerny, a lawyer with Sandler Travis, urged CBP to "reconsider" that requirement. "The current regulations don't require that," he said. "The regulations that apply to those claims don't require it and to require the additional data, I'm hearing more and more from folks that that's almost impossible to recreate some of these claims and submit them through core."
CBP is still considering how it will handle applications for core drawback claims that are pending as of Feb. 24, 2019, when core drawback claims will no longer be accepted, said Fletcher Benton, a drawback specialist at the agency. "We're looking into that issue and we'll come out with something," he said. "We're doing the best we can to get them all done by February," but filers shouldn't "worry you're going to lose something." Asked about the process for accelerated payments once the final TFTEA drawback regulations come out, Benton said the agency has an internal plan and CBP will put out more guidance ahead of time.