CBP finalized its December 2022 interim final rule that moved the responsibility for administering refunds, reduced tax rates and tax credits on imported alcohol from CBP to the Treasury Department. In a notice released March 5, CBP formally adopted changes that took effect in January 2023 that moved the responsibility of the Craft Beverage Modernization Act (CBMA) from CBP to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) within Treasury (see 2209220065). The change was required by the Tax Relief Act of 2020, which made CBMA permanent but transferred its administration to the TTB. The rule takes effect March 6.
The Canada Border Services Agency is expecting "movement" on a bill that will prohibit goods from Xinjiang from entering Canada, Stephanie Briere, the director of commercial programs for the agency, said at a North Country Chamber of Commerce webinar on Feb. 29. S-204, first introduced in November 2021, would ban imports that were manufactured or produced wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
In FY 2024 so far, more than 485 million packages have entered the U.S. under de minimis, House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said in a March 1 statement. That continues an upward trend from 1.05 billion de minimis shipments in all of FY 2023, which was an increase of 53% from the 685 million de minimis shipments in FY 2022, he said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
COSCO Shipping Lines charged unfair detention and unfair chassis, storage, stop-off and redelivery fees, Access One Transport said in a complaint filed with the Federal Maritime Commission on March 1. The California-based motor carrier said that COSCO violated the Shipping Act by charging unfair fees when the containers couldn't be returned due to lack of appointments, dual transactions and specific actions by COSCO's and its terminals.
CBP posted the following documents ahead of the March 6 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting, which begins at 1 p.m. EST:
CBP reminded members of the trade community that starting March 1 the agency will require self-certification statements to be uploaded to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) for non-industrial diamonds with a weight of 1.0 carat or greater, diamond jewelry and unsorted diamonds, in a CSMS message on Feb. 29. The Office of Foreign Assets Control banned Russian diamonds of those types in February to comply with an executive order signed in December that prohibits the importation of diamonds, fish and seafood if they were produced "wholly or in part" in Russia, CBP said (see 2402080081 and 2312260061).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The new Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism portal will only need a few more weeks before it can get back to where CTPAT was in terms of functionality before the creation of the new portal, said Mark Isaacson, CBP's CTPAT field director in Buffalo, New York. Isaacson said that CBP has a dedicated team working toward making the portal "very user-friendly," which has resulted in a lot of updates.