The federal government, in the form of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has begun acting on alleged copyright infringers at the behest of copyright owners in the recent past, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in response to the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator's (IPEC) request for comment on the administration's IP enforcement strategy. "The records suggest that [ICE] and its attorneys are effectively acting as the hired gun of the content industry at the taxpayers' expense," the letter said. "Instead of relying on rightsholders to determine whether a seizure was appropriate, the government should have been conducting its own thorough investigation."
CBP issued its Aug. 15 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 46, No. 34), which contains 4 notices of the following ruling actions:
CBP sought comments on a proposed amendment to its regulations that would add recordkeeping requirements to U.S. exports of rough diamonds and include additional information on requirements for rough diamond import and export. CBP is proposing to require any U.S. persons exporting from the U.S. a shipment of rough diamonds to retain a copy of the Kimberley Process Certificate accompanying each shipment for at least five years from the date of export and make the copy available for examination at the request of CBP, the agency said in a notice in the Federal Register Aug. 15. Comments on the proposals are due Oct. 15.
CBP Miami sent out a trade information notice to say the office of the CBP Miami Port Director Roland Suliveras moved to the North Terminal of Miami International Airport. The Assistant Port Director for Agriculture, Michael Wright, and other administrative staff also moved, the notice said. The phone number for the new office is (786) 476-3100, while the mailing address remains the same. Email documents@brokerpower.com for a copy of the notice.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to CBP's website Aug. 13, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://addcvd.cbp.gov. (CBP occasionally adds backdated messages without otherwise indicating which message was added. ITT will include a message date in parentheses in such cases.)
CBP issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of Aug. 13. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, and tobacco; and certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, OFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs; etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, OFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying textile articles and/or other articles; the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics; etc.
CBP said the Food and Drug Administration deployed software modifications on Aug. 10-11 and has received reports that ABI messages were not sent for some entries transmitted during the installation. FDA is investigating the situation and will resend the messages as soon as possible, said CBP in a CSMS message. Unless perishable lines are pending review, don't contact the FDA District office on the issue, said CBP. CBP said in a follow-up CSMS message that all FDA “May Proceed” messages have been resent for entries transmitted on the weekend of August 11 that were issued a system “May Proceed." Entries not receiving such notification may still be under “FDA Review.” The follow-up CSMS message is (here).
CBP's Office of International Trade issued Version 3.3 of the ACE Business Rules and Process Document. The updated document was edited for clarity, including renumbered chapters to correspond with the CBP internal version (for ease of reference) and additional processing details, said CBP in a CSMS message. The document is (here).
CBP posted an Aug. 6 version of its CF 1400 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Entrances) electronic query report of the Vessel Management System (VMS), in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by entrances. CBP also posted a version of its CF 1401 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Clearances) electronic query report of the VMS, in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by clearances.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues: