U.S. Customs and Border Protection 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.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its monthly Automated Commercial Environment Updates for December 2011. With this update, CBP lists new statistics on the growing number of ACE Secure Data Portal trade user accounts and the growing size of revenue collected via Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS). The number of approved entities authorized to file ACE entry summaries using the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) has also grown to 54 entities, with more than 710,959 ACE entry summaries having been filed since functionality was introduced in April 2009.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the 2012 preliminary low-duty tariff rate quota limit for tuna and skipjack, in airtight containers, not in oil, in containers, weighing with their contents not over 7 kg each, is 19,055,822 kg. This low-duty TRQ will open January 3, 2012, under opening moment procedures, with the over-quota (high-duty) tariff numbers and rates in effect for all entry/entry summaries. The final quota limit will be provided to CBP by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in March 2012. Upon receipt of the final quota limit, CBP will issue proration and liquidation instructions to the trade and field.
In December 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated its Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) chapter on Cargo/Manifest Status Query. This chapter provides record formats that allow entry processing results, bills of lading and in-bonds to be queried. Edits were made to Codes 53 and 54 of Note 1 for the Record Identifier R5 (Output) - a conditional cargo release query results output record that provides data pertaining to the in bond number and master, house, and sub house bill numbers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued the following news releases related to commercial trade and related issues:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has made all sections of the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) user requirements available for download. CBP has posted a .zip file that contains 76 documents for Appendices A through U, Air In-Bond, Bill of Lading, Border Cargo Release, Drawback, Entry Summary, Importer Security Filing, Etc. Download all sections of ABI user requirements here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the weekly foreign currency exchange rate multipliers for the week ending December 16, 2011.
The Port of Long Beach issued a December 16, 2011 press release stating that its container trade volume dropped 17.6 percent overall in November compared to the same period a year ago. Imports were down 15.6 percent, and exports dipped 22.2 percent. The drop represents the fifth straight month of decline in container traffic at POLB. A portion of the decline in traffic was attributable to the departure of California United Terminals, which vacated one of the Port's seven container terminals last year. CUT accounted for roughly a tenth of the Port's overall container traffic. The numbers also reflect caution by retailers despite improving consumer confidence and a better than expected holiday 2011 shopping season.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Web site as of December 16, 2011, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. These messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://addcvd.cbp.gov.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing that due to additional delays in procuring a venue for the Trade Software Developer Technical Seminars, CBP must once again postpone these seminars. The seminars were originally scheduled for November and December 2011 and were later postponed to January 2012. CBP states that it understands there is a lot of interest in the trade community regarding these seminars and will send another announcement on them as soon as it has more information.