Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report

U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently provided an update on its three pilot tests evaluating the functionality of filing air, vessel and rail cargo export manifest data electronically to the Automated Commercial Environment. A similar test for truck export manifest data is under development. These pilots are expected to ultimately result in regulatory changes making the submission of export manifest data through ACE mandatory.

The trade community and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are actively discussing additional roles that CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise could assume.

The U.S. trade embargo against Iran remains in place and U.S. persons and entities are still prohibited from virtually all dealings with Iranian entities.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has already postponed this step once to allow industry and PGAs more time to test and provide feedback as they fully transition to the new system.

A customs reauthorization bill focused on improving trade facilitation and enforcement could get a vote in the Senate this month after being stuck there for several weeks following its approval by the House of Representatives.

Bureau of Industry and Security chief Kevin Wolf told a congressional committee this week that BIS “will not be implementing as final” a May 2015 proposed rule on licensing requirements for exports of specified cybersecurity items. Wolf said BIS is still determining how best to respond to the predominantly negative comments received on the proposal.

President Obama issued Jan. 11 a proclamation stating that duty-free treatment under the African Growth and Opportunity Act for all AGOA-eligible goods in the agricultural sector from South Africa will be suspended effective March 15.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has accepted for review 34 petitions to modify the list of products eligible for duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s reasoning for treating post-entry claims of NAFTA preferential duty treatment under 19 USC 1520(d) differently for purposes of waiver depending on whether they were submitted traditionally or through CBP’s reconciliation program.

This development, like a separate recent case in which a food company executive was sentenced to 28 years in prison, highlights the serious consequences that can result from food safety problems.

Three more major U.S. business groups came out in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership this week after several months of close scrutiny. The groups said they hope Congress will pass the TPP by the end of 2016 but acknowledged that key changes will have to be made for that to happen.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has published a list of hundreds of customs broker licenses that have been revoked by operation of law without prejudice for failure to file a triennial status report.