A Micronesian government official pleaded guilty to money laundering charges that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Department of Justice said April 3. Master Halbert, an official in Micronesia’s Department of Transportation, Communications and Infrastructure, received bribes from a Hawaii-based engineering and consulting company in exchange for contracts with the Micronesian government, the department said.
The Census Bureau visited 13 companies in 2018 as part of its Automated Export System compliance review program, the agency said in an April 3 blog post. The average AES compliance rates prior to the visits were 85 percent, it said. Such visits are meant to "help noncompliant companies understand the export reporting requirements" and avoid government enforcement actions, Census said. Noncompliance includes "filing incorrect Schedule B or Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers, filing with foreign currency, filing with incorrect units of measure, or failing to verify information with a commodity analyst," it said.
CBP's reallocation of 750 officers from Ports of Entry to Border Patrol is affecting exports from the U.S., according to an April 4 call with CBP officials. According to an emailed write-up of the call from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, this "deployment will affect outbound as well, as there is far fewer staff overall." The NCBFAA said that "CBP acknowledged that all southwest cargo ports are being impacted" and "the option is available to direct to other ports, but all will see an expected wait time increase."
Treasury’s March settlement with Stanley Black & Decker serves as a compliance guide for U.S. companies and represents an important peek into how the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control plans to issue enforcement settlements throughout 2019, according to an April 1 report by WilmerHale.
Canada appears set to impose a three-year safeguard duty on imports of heavy steel plate and stainless steel wire from most countries, but could soon refund safeguard duties collected on five other types of steel, after the Canadian International Trade Tribunal issued a mixed decision April 3 on whether to finalize provisional safeguard duties in place since October.
Livingston International will take part in blockchain pilot involving the Canada Border Services Agency, the company said in an April 3 news release. The pilot will use TradeLens, a "blockchain-enabled digital shipping solution jointly developed" by IBM and A.P. Moller-Maersk, it said. "Livingston will serve as the first customs broker to leverage the TradeLens platform for brokerage automation," the company said. "Livingston's role in the pilot will be to enter and access information on shipments and streamline internal procedures without compromising accuracy or security. The CBSA is participating in the TradeLens pilot to determine what role the platform could play in its business processes."
The Federal Maritime Commission released a notice of the filing of the following agreements under the Shipping Act of 1984. Interested parties may submit comments on the agreement by email to Secretary@fmc.gov, or by mail to the Secretary, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, DC 20573, within 12 days of publication in the Federal Register.
In the April 3 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of April 3 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recently updated its information page on the Automated Import Reference System Verification Service (AVS), the agency said an email. "AVS helps importers/brokers validate multiple commodities against the most current [Automated Import Reference System (AIRS)] database," the CFIA said. "Within minutes, AVS identifies which line in a transaction, if any, is incorrect." The AVS technical specifications page and a list of frequently asked questions were also recently updated.