U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Sept. 16 that importers who are CTPAT Trade Compliance partners in good standing may utilize foreign-trade zones to store goods subject to potential forced labor enforcement action. Importers that do not meet this criterion may only store detained forced labor goods in bonded warehouses using a Type 21 entry.
CBP states that to utilize this benefit an importer must identify which FTZ operator it will use and that operator must have an active Type 4 bond and a FIRMS code and be in compliance with all CBP regulations. The importer must also notify the port director, the CTPAT Trade Compliance Branch, and the Center of Excellence and Expertise director when using this option and receive port director approval prior to moving cargo. CEEs will not conduct formal admissibility reviews prior to the filing of formal entries and the issuance of detention notices on these formal entries.
CBP adds that the line(s) in question on the estimated weekly entry will be marked as detained by the port issuing the CBP Form(s) 6051D and that estimated weekly entries will not receive a CBP release while any goods on the transaction are detained. All other lines will remain on the entry unedited and the filer will need to submit an additional estimated weekly entry for them, which will serve as authorization to withdraw the goods from the FTZ.
While stored in the FTZ, detained goods (1) must be directly identified and not fungible, (2) must be physically segregated from other merchandise, and (3) may not be manipulated, sold, broken up, repacked, or distributed. Such goods must also be physically identified in one of the following two ways to indicate that they cannot and will not be entered into the U.S. for consumption or removed from the FTZ: (1) CBP 239 warning labels must be adhered to the cargo at the zone site by CBP personnel, or (2) subject to the port director’s approval, copies of the issued CBP Form 6051D must be adhered to the cargo by the FTZ operator.
CBP notes that qualifying importers with shipments detained for forced labor that are currently stored in an FTZ may continue to keep them there if they file a formal 06 entry to include all data elements for the suspected goods. In addition, as entities are added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, any impacted goods that are stored in an FTZ at the time of such addition may remain in the FTZ only if the importer files an 06 estimated weekly entry containing all line-item data elements as required for the transaction.
Copyright © 2024 Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.; WorldTrade Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved.