The online registration for the August 4, 2010 COAC meeting is now available on CBP's website.
CBP has issued a memorandum regarding the Committee for Implementation of Textile Agreements' recent determination that certain textile and apparel goods from Burkina Faso shall be treated as “folklore articles” and “ethnic printed fabrics” and qualify for preferential treatment under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and imports of eligible products with an appropriate visa will qualify for duty-free treatment. (See ITT's Online Archives or 07/14/10 news, 10071320, for BP summary of CITA's determination.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message stating that its previously announced changes to Importer Security Filing Status Advisory (SA) messages and stow plan responses messages are scheduled to be implemented on August 7, 2010.
CBP has issued a CSMS message stating that it has resolved the issue with creating a new ACE report from scratch and modifying existing reports. Users can now run a modified report as well as create a report from scratch. (See ITT's Online Archives or 07/26/10 news, [Ref:100726280, for BP summary announcing the problem.) (CSMS #10-000183, dated 07/28/10)
CBP has issued memos announcing the August 1, 2010 opening (for the quota period of 08/01/10- 07/31/11) of the following Uruguay Rounds/GATT cotton tariff rate quotas:
CBP has posted Amendment 51 to the Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements document. The following sections were revised: Daily Statement, Foreign Trade Zone, Appendix B (Valid Codes), and Appendix P (FTZ Error Messages).
CBP has posted an updated version of its Public Automated Commercial System FIRMS (Facilities Information and Resources Management Systems) report that is organized by port code and alphabetically by company name.
CBP has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of July 26, 2010. 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 has posted the minutes from the April 7, 2010 meeting of COAC’s Intellectual Property Rights Subcommittee. Most of the issues discussed at the April 7, 2010 meeting were also discussed at subsequent COAC Committee and IPR Subcommittee meetings. During the discussion of a planned IPR Importer Self-Assessment program component, a Subcommittee member asked CBP why 20 companies have withdrawn from ISA. CBP responded that the withdrawals were due primarily to bankruptcy. At the meeting, Subcommittee members also expressed concerns that if gray market importers become ISA-IPR certified it could allow counterfeits to be introduced. CBP also responded favorably to a suggestion by a Subcommittee member that e-Allegations be reviewed as part of the control process for an ISA-IPR program.
CBP has posted an updated version of its TRQ/TPL "threshold to fill" list, a quick reference to monitor TRQs and TPLs that are approaching their restraint limit or have filled their in-quota (low) rate. The list is divided into two sections: those that are at least 85% filled and those that are filled.