RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- As increased trade enforcement, the federal government shutdown and efforts to hunt down counterfeit goods and illegal drugs dominate today’s headlines, so are these circumstances impacting the ports on the West Coast, according to panelists at last week’s Western Cargo Conference.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to defend his assessment that "adequate systems were in place to 'fully and expeditiously process and collect duties for articles otherwise eligible for duty-free de minimis treatment on a global basis'" by July 30.
Rep. Stacey Plaskett, D-V.I., said her home territory, along with Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, are facing shipping problems due to the end of de minimis, even though the Virgin Islands and those other territories aren't part of the Customs Zone.
The ACE certification environment has a new functionality that increases the maximum number of entry summaries on a statement from 2,000 to 9,999, CBP said in a recent cargo systems message.
The end of the de minimis exemption could favor larger importers that are able to handle the additional data requirements while maintaining fast deliveries to consumers, according to Vince Iacopella, president of trade and government relations for Alba Wheels Up.
DHL Global Forwarding is hiring over 200 more staff members as part of a broader effort to expand its U.S. customs operations, according to a statement from DHL Global Forwarding CEO Tim Robertson provided to International Trade Today by DHL.
As CBP winds down the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee in its current iteration (see 2507010077), the COAC's de minimis working group offered proposed recommendations to CBP to bolster entry processing in ACE amid the end of the de minimis exemption on Aug. 29. These recommendations include treating postal shipments similarly to how CBP handles low-value shipments via other transportation modes.
CBP has added more parties to the list of those qualified to handle the payment of duties on international mail shipments, according to a recent cargo systems message. These parties pay duties on behalf of an international mail carrier or qualified party acting in lieu of the carrier (see 2508260026). Duties collection on all international mail shipments began following the end of the de minimis exemption on Aug. 29, under a July 30 executive order.
CBP posted the following documents for the September 17 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee is urging CBP to provide dates when posting information on the implementation of tariff and other trade-related policies, according to a list of recommendations that the committee provided to CBP ahead of the Sept. 17 quarterly meeting.