C U S T O M S

CBP Issues Tougher Guidelines for Mitigation of Penalties Involving
Removal of Goods w/o Customs Authorization or Exam

December 04, 2006

CBP has announced new guidelines, effective December 6th, concerning the mitigation of penalties assessed for the premature removal or delivery of merchandise from a port without CBP authorization or examination. CBP states that by tightening these guidelines, it is "conveying the seriousness of its concerns to the importing community with respect to the recurrence of these violations."

Under the new guidelines, if CBP considers the removal or delivery of the merchandise from the place of unlading, the terminal or the port without CBP authorization or examination to place the security, health or safety of the public at risk, the penalty assessment for such violations will be mitigated as follows:

- A first violation- upon payment of an amount equal to the lesser of 75 percent of the domestic value of the merchandise at issue or a flat sum between $10,000 and $25,000.00

- A second violation- upon payment of an amount equal to the lesser of 75 percent of the domestic value of the merchandise at issue or (2) a flat sum between $25,001 and $50,000.00

- Third or subsequent violations0 upon payment of an amount equal to the lesser of 75 percent of the domestic value of the merchandise at issue or a flat sum between $50,001 and $75,000.

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CBP - Announces Mandatory Filing of Truck Electronic Manifests

Mandatory Filing of Truck E-Manifest to Begin in Washington, Arizona and North Dakota

December 30, 2006

Mandatory Filing of Truck E-Manifest to Begin in Washington, Arizona and North Dakota

Effective January 25, 2007, truck carriers entering the United States through all ports of entry in the states of Washington and Arizona and through the ports of Pembina, Neche, Walhalla, Maida, Hannah, Sarles and Hansboro in North Dakota will be required to file electronic manifests through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). ACE is the next generation of U.S. Customs and Border Protection technology designed to protect the United States from terrorism and to ensure the country's economic vitality by expediting lawful trade.

This announcement was made October 25th, 2006 in the Federal Register. (FR Doc E6-17998).  Eventually, all land border ports will be required to transmit advance electronic truck cargo information through ACE. Before requiring it at the ports not covered by today's notice, CBP will provide 90 days notice through the Federal Register.

Phase II included naming the states of Michigan and New York.   An ACE Exchange is being planned right now for the Detroit area (actual dates to be announced- late February or beginning of March).  This is expected to coincide with the announcement and expansion of the mandatory roll-out. 

The requirement to submit advance electronic cargo information is mandated by the Trade Act of 2002. To comply with this requirement, truck carriers have the following options to transmit e-manifests.

      Self file through the Web-based ACE secure data portal or via a CBP approved electronic data interchange (EDI), or

      Use third parties, which usually require a fee.

To begin filing e-manifests with CBP, carriers are encouraged to establish an ACE carrier account or obtain certification to file via EDI, or contact a customs broker, service provider, or other authorized filer to discuss how to submit e-manifests.

The e-manifest capability is available at all ports where ACE is deployed.

For more information (or to view Press Release issued on October 26th (available to the public October 27th):

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/10262006.xml

Frequently Asked Questions: (Updated on CBP website Dec. 29th, 2006)

http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/ace_faq.ctt/ace_faq.doc

US CBP - Proposal for advance trade data elements
December 21, 2006

The advance trade data elements proposal would, if adopted, require submittal of a Security Filing showing, among other things, the manufacturer name and address; the container stuffing location; and the buyer name and address. Plans call for the Security Filing to be the responsibility of the importer.   Ocean carriers would have to submit the vessel stow plan and container status messages. 

Read more here: http://www.customs.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/carriers/adv_data_elements.ctt/adv_data_elements.doc

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Customs to phase in new import data requirements

14 Dec 2006, CSCB

US Customs and Border Protection intends to implement rules requiring importers to provide additional data to identify high-risk shipments by the end of summer, 2007, but the agency plans to phase in the "10+2" requirements to minimize their compliance burden, Commissioner W. Ralph Basham said Wednesday.

"With these new reporting requirements, I want to be sure that all the issue[s] that impact your business are resolved before we go to full compliance," Basham told an audience of some 700 importers, carriers and intermediaries at the Seventh Customs Trade Symposium.

Basham told reporters after his keynote address that Customs is not going to implement all the data requirements at once. The Trade Support Network met for three days before the symposium, he said, and defining the data elements has been a major focus of discussion.

Members of the trade who attended the meeting said that providing data on foreign manufacturers will likely cause a greater burden on small- and mid-size importers. Basham and Michael Mullen, assistant commissioner for international affairs and trade relations, said that the phased implementation is meant to minimize the effect of providing the so-called 10+2 data.

Basham asked the symposium for its input to refine the definitions.

"The purpose of 10+2 is security. They are not going to be used for compliance purposes," Basham told reporters. He said skeptics in the trade may not believe that data would spill over to trade enforcement. "The only way to appease our skeptics is performance."

ICE Arrests Two for Trafficking in Counterfeit Goods
04 Dec 2006, ST&R

Two U.S. citizens indicted for trafficking more than $2 million in counterfeit items were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents. The goods seized included counterfeit Nike shoes and Prada and Coach handbags.

According to ICE, counterfeiting, piracy and other intellectual property rights violations have grown in magnitude and complexity in recent years, costing U.S. businesses billions of dollars in lost revenue and often posing health and safety risks to U.S. consumers. In 1998, the International Chamber of Commerce estimated that five to seven percent of world trade was comprised of counterfeit goods, a market worth some $350 billion. In May 2004, the USTR’s annual Special 301 report estimated that U.S. industry alone loses $200 to $250 billion to counterfeiting annually.

ICE states that the growth in IPR violations has been fueled in part by the spread of enabling technology allowing for simple, low-cost duplication of copyrighted products, as well as by the rise in organized crime groups that smuggle and distribute counterfeit merchandise for profit. In many cases these groups bankroll their criminal activities, including illegal drug trafficking, the sale of illegal weapons and even the possible funding of terrorist attacks, with the profits realized from the sale of counterfeit goods.

In fiscal year 2005, ICE agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers made 8,022 seizures of counterfeit goods worth $93 million, an increase from the roughly 7,225 seizures in FY 2004. Together, ICE and CBP seized roughly $700 million worth of counterfeit goods from FY 1998 through FY 2005.

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T R A N S P O R T A T I O N / T R A D E

Truck shipments take a dive
Fri Dec 29, 2006 The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE

In a potentially worrisome sign for the U.S. economy, trucking shipments declined by almost 9 percent in November — the largest year-over-year decrease in almost six years, the American Trucking Associations said. 

The ATA said in a monthly report that its seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index stands at its lowest level since late 2003 after an 8.8 percent decline from the same month a year earlier. The index fell 3.6 percent from October.

Because more than two-thirds of all manufactured and retail goods in the country are carried by truck, the industry is considered an economic bellwether.

``Both the month-to-month and year-over-year decreases indicate that the economic slowdown is in full gear,'' Bob Costello, the ATA's chief economist, said in a statement. ``One month certainly doesn't make a trend, but if we continue to see year-over-year reductions of similar magnitudes in the next couple of months, it could indicate a greater economic slowdown than economists are projecting at this point.''

Costello cautioned that year-over-year comparisons might be skewed by the ``very robust volumes'' the industry saw in the same period of last year.

Trucking companies have seen their fuel costs surge in the past few years, although they have been able to pass most of those extra expenses through to customers.

NOL to open Vietnam subsidiary
Wed Dec 27, 2006  The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE

Neptune Orient Lines has received approval from Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment to establish a wholly owned company to provide container transportation and logistics services in Vietnam.

The new company, APL-NOL (Vietnam) Ltd., will replace an existing joint venture on Jan. 1.

NOL's subsidiaries APL and APL Logistics have been providing container transportation and supply chain management services in Vietnam in association with Vietfracht, a local shipping and logistics company, since 1991.

APL currently offers five weekly sailings from Vietnam to global destinations and APL Logistics operates more than 36,000 square feet of warehouse space in the country. NOL was also an early investor in Vietnam's first privately owned, purpose-built container port - Vietnam International Container Terminal - which will handle around 440,000 TEUs this year.

NOL also announced the appointment of three additional non-executive directors, Bobby Chin, Simon Israel and Tan Pheng Hock, to its board, effective Dec. 26. Chin is currently chairman of the Singapore Totalisator Board and Changi Airports International Pte. Ltd. Israel is an executive director of Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., which holds 68 percent of NOL's issued capital. Hock is president and CEO of Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd. and a director of SembCorp Marine Ltd.

GSP changes could drop some duty-free access

Thu Dec 21, 2006   By Alan Field  The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE

Six foreign trading partners could lose duty-free access to the United States market for some of their key exports because of a revamped trade program signed into law Wednesday by President Bush.

Brazil, Cote d'Ivoire, India, The Philippines, Thailand and Venezuela could lose trade benefits because of changes Congress made recently to the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences for developing countries, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said.

Previously, the six countries received a waiver to continue exporting certain goods to the U.S. on a duty-free basis even when the shipments exceeded thresholds that otherwise would have ended those benefits.

The changes to the GSP program were largely motivated by U.S. frustration with India and Brazil during the Doha Round of trade talks. Now, the Washington will be allowed to revoke such waivers when certain imports from one country exceed an annual cap of about $187.5 million, or when those imports comprise 75 percent of total U.S. imports of that product.

For example, India will lose duty-free access for gold jewelry and brass lamps, according to the USTR's preliminary assessment. From January through October, India shipped $1.6 billion in gold jewelry and $20 million in brass lamps to the U.S. under the GSP program. Brazil will lose duty-free access for brakes and brake parts, which totaled $242 million from January through October, and for ferrozirconium, which totaled $700,000, the USTR said.

Other products affected include gold jewelry imports from Thailand, valued at $611 million through October, wiring harnesses from The Philippines; methanol from Venezuela, and kola nuts from Cote d'Ivoire, valued at $4 million.

The USTR in February will publish a Federal Register notice that provides further details about the trade benefits to be revoked

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If the world were a village of only 100 people there would be:

          60 Asians

              14 Africans

                  12 Europeans

                      8 people from central and south America, Mexico and the Caribbean

                          5 from the USA and Canada

                              1 from Australia or New Zealand

The people of the village would have considerable difficulty in communication

14 people would speak mandarin

8 would speak Hindi Urdu

8 English

7 Spanish

4 Russian

4 Arabic

The rest would speak more than 200 languages

In the village there would be

33 Christians

22 Moslems

15 Hindus

14 nonreligious, agnostics, or atheists

6 Buddhists

10 all other religions

In the 100 person community

80 would live in substandard housing

67 adults live in the village and half of them would be illiterate

50 would suffer from malnutrition

33 would not have access to clean safe drinking water

24 people would not have any electricity

Of the 76 that do have electricity, most would use it only for light at night

In the village there would be 42 radios, 24 TVs 14 telephones and 7 computers

7 people would own an automobile (some of them more than one.

5 people would possess 32% of the entire village’s wealth and these would all be from the USA

The poorest one-third of the people would receive only 3% of the income of the village

The following is also something to ponder

If you woke up this morning healthy - you are more blessed that the million who will not survive this week

if you have never experienced the danger of battle, the fear and loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pain of starvation - your are better off than 500 million people in the world.  If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back and a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are more comfortable than 75% of the people in this world.  If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If you can read this, you are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

W E B S I T E S / E V E N T S