U.S. Customs and Border Protection's November 30, 2011 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 45, No. 49) contains 10 notices of ruling actions:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted documents providing an update on the Integrated Fixed Towers (ITF) Program, which CBP states will assist Border Patrol agents in detecting, tracking, identifying, classifying items of interest along U.S. borders through a series of fixed sensor towers and command and control center equipment. CBP is focused on acquiring surveillance equipment, power generation and communications equipment, command and control center equipment, etc. With these documents, CBP is providing information and notifying industry of its plan to release a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) in early December 2011 to solicit industry feedback and to release a final RFP in January/February 2012. The documents are available here and here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the contact information for the following nine press officers in California:
This summary report highlights the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels1 from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” It also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.”
According to the Internal Revenue Service, the interest rates for the first quarter of calendar year 2012 (January 1 -- March 31, 2012) for overpayments and underpayments of Customs duties are as follows:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a user guide on running Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) reports for rail and sea carriers. The guide provides information on basic functionality of the ACE Reports Tool and outlines detailed instructions on how to access available reports. Instructions address how to view standard reports, how to modify data fields within standard reports, and how to build fully customized reports from a blank slate. Additional documents on the ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea are available here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing the scheduled federal holidays for 2012, as follows:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of November 28, 2011.
On November 29, 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued its November 2011 ACE Trade Account Owner (TAO) Update. The TAO provides information on a number of ACE and general trade developments, including the AM-100 report for importers (which replaced the mailed courtesy notices of liquidation), Post Summary Corrections, FMCSA status messages to ACE Truck e-Manifest filers, FAST cards, and Simplified Entry.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that in a recent report, the Government Accountability Office cited CBP's expansion and upgrade of radio frequency ID, or RFID, technology at ports of entry around the country as an example of "good management and delivery" in federal information technology. The systems, which allow certain identification documents to be read electronically from a distance, have enhanced both efficiency and security, leading to the GAO's designation of the program as a best practice across the federal government.