International Trade Law News

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted on its website some of the materials that we will be presented during n the breakout sessions at next week's 2009 Trade Symposium.

Among the materials now available for review include information on C-TPAT, antidumping and countervailing duty functionality in ACE, post entry summary corrections in ACE and customs rulings.

For those that cannot attend the sold-out program in person, CBP will be presenting a live webcast of many of the sessions from the Trade Symposium. To view the presentations and for more details on the webcast click here.

Labels: Antidumping, C-TPAT, CBP, Customs

U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently published the following Year in Review of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Program (C-TPAT) for 2008:

C-TPAT 2008 Year in Review

Labels: C-TPAT, CBP

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sent a notice yesterday to all participants in the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program advising that CBP officers recently discovered 2,822 pounds of marijuana in a shipment from Mexico involving participants in the C-TPAT program.

According to CBP, officers at the Nogales, Arizona port of entry became suspicious of a truck carrying wiring harnesses from Mexico as it attempted to make entry into the U.S. and decided to send the shipment for an X-ray inspection to determine if contraband was hidden in the trailer. Before the tractor and trailer could even make it to the X-ray unit for inspection, one of the CBP narcotics detection dogs alerted to the presence of narcotics in the trailer.

The image from the X-ray inspection confirmed the presence of narcotics hidden in the shipment. Upon further examination, 110 packages of marijuana with a street value of over $4.5 million were discovered. The driver was arrested and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further investigation and the narcotics, tractor and trailer were seized by CBP.

In its notice, CBP stated that "trust was betrayed" since the companies transporting and receiving this shipment were trusted participants in the C-TPAT program, which is intended to lead to a reduction in the number of random examinations of low risk shipments.

As a result of this seizure, the companies' C-TPAT privileges have been suspended until CBP can further investigate the events that transpired.

Labels: C-TPAT, CBP

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that it will hold the 2009 C-TPAT Supply Chain Security Seminar from April 1-3, 2009 in New Orleans. The seminar is only open to C-TPAT certified partners.

The seminar will be presented in two sessions to accommodate additional registrants. Session I will be held on Wednesday-Thursday, April 1-2, 2009 and Session II will be held on Thursday-Friday, April 2-3, 2009.

Registration will begin on Monday, January 5, 2009 via the C-TPAT Members' page on CBP's website.

Labels: C-TPAT

U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently announced that it will permit Third Party Logistics Providers (3PLs) to enroll in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program starting in January 2009.

In order to be eligible for participation in the C-TPAT program, the 3PL must:

• Be directly involved in the handling and management of the cargo throughout any point in the international supply chain, from point of stuffing, up to the first U.S. port of arrival. Entities which only provide domestic services and are not engaged in cross border activities are not eligible.
• Manage and execute these particular logistics functions using its own transportation, consolidation and/or warehousing assets and resources, on behalf of the client company.
• Does not allow subcontracting of service beyond a second party other than to other C-TPAT members (does not allow the practice of “double brokering”, that is, the 3PL may contract with a service provider, but may not allow that contractor to further subcontract the actual provision of this service).
• Be licensed and/or bonded by the Federal Maritime Commission, Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or the Department of Transportation.
• Maintain a staffed office within the United States.
  

CBP has indicated that non asset-based 3PL’s who perform duties such as quoting, booking, routing, and auditing but do not own warehousing facilities, vehicles, aircraft, or any other transportation assets, will be excluded from C-TPAT enrollment

CBP has issued the C-TPAT minimum-security criteria for 3Pls, which can be found here (doc). The minimum-security criteria is similar to other C-TPAT eligible sectors and includes the following requirements:

• Business Partner Requirements

1. Service provider screening and selection
2. Customer screening

• Security procedures

• Container/Trailer Inspection, Seals, Storage, Security (where applicable)

• Physical Security and Access Controls

• Procedural Security

1. Document processing
2. Manifesting
3. Shipping & receiving
4. Discrepancies

• Information Technology Security

• Security Training and Threat Awareness

• All eligibility requirements must be met

Labels: C-TPAT

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued the draft agenda (doc) for the sold-out 2008 Trade Symposium that will be held at the end of this month in Washington, DC. The program will feature the following breakout sessions:

• TSA Air Cargo Screening Programs - TSA’s 100% Air Cargo Screening and Certified Cargo Screening Program (CCSP): Listen to TSA and CBP discuss collaboration on TSA air cargo screening programs and initiatives designed to meet the 9/11 bill mandate to screen 100% of cargo on passenger planes.
• C-TPAT Security Best Practices and Lessons Learned - Don’t Let This Happen To You: Through case studies hear lessons learned from C-TPAT member security breaches.
• Implementing Importer Security Filing Implementation (ISF) - Hear from CBP experts on steps you need to take to meet the implementation requirements. Hear from ATDI participants and CBP as they discuss their implementation experience and answer more detailed and technical questions.
• CBP Trade Strategy - CBP Trade Strategy and What It Means To Your Business: Review with OT leadership the strategy in detail and discuss strategies planned to implement its goals and how they may impact your business.
• Import Safety Working Group and ISA - President’s Import Safety Action Plan One Year Later: Review CBP’s progress on implementing the plan provisions and hear about PGA program progress related to the action plan. Review progress made in ITDS and experience in piloting the ISA-Product Safety initiative.
• USDA/CBP Agriculture Mission CBP - Prevent Agriculture Related Remedial Actions: Get a progress report on implementation of the Joint Agency Task Force initiatives. Review case studies of Ag-related remedial measures and what you should know to prevent them.
• Upcoming ACE changes - Discuss in detail upcoming ACE functionality and schedule for an understanding of the impact on the trade community.
• ISA Best Practices for Compliance - Importer Self-Assessment, The Path to Facilitation: A discussion of best practices in a competitive environment.
• IPR Initiatives and Trade Facilitation - A discussion of issues surrounding IPR enforcement and future initiatives. Working with the trade to balance enforcement and facilitation.

Labels: C-TPAT, CBP

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today issued an overview and assessment of the operations of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program in 2007.

The year end review contained the following statistics regarding the C-TPAT program during calendar year 2007:

• Supply chain security specialist visited manufacturing and logistics facilities in 79 countries, representing some of the most terrorist prone and high risk areas of the world.
• C-TPAT validated 3,011 supply chains, representing a 27 percent increase from 2006. Of the 3,011 validations conducted, 601 or 20 percent were revalidations. This was the first year that C-TPAT began re-verifying supply chains.
• C-TPAT certified 2,601 new members in accordance with SAFE Port Act requirements.
• C-TPAT Tier III status was granted to 17 companies as a result of the validation process.
• C-TPAT suspended or removed 112 companies from the program for security breaches or failure to meet C-TPAT's minimum security criteria as revealed in the validation process. Of the 112 companies, 47 were either conditionally or fully reinstated in the C-TPAT program after they demonstrated to CBP's satisfaction that immediate and sustained corrective action had been taken.

For more information, the text of the year-end review can be found here.

Labels: C-TPAT, Customs

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today announced the names of the companies that have been selected to serve as third party validators in the Third Party Validation Pilot Program for purposes of conducting supply chain validations under the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) in China. This one-year pilot program was necessary since the Chinese government has denied CBP’s request to allow CBP employees from performing validations in China. This program marks the first time that C-TPAT supply chain validations will be performed by commercial entities.

The following companies have been chosen by CBP to perform validations on CBP selected C-TPAT participants with operations in China:

• ABS Group
  
• CSCC/STR
  
• Cotecna
• Det Norske
• Veritas
  
• Intertek
• Omega Compliance
• Pinkerton
  
• Sharp Global
  
• SGS North America
• TUV Rheinland
  

CBP will notify eligible C-TPAT participants in writing of their selection to participate in the third party validation pilot program. The C-TPAT participant will be required to select one of the third party entities within 30 days to initiate the validation process. Both the third party firm and the C-TPAT participant will be required to sign a conflict of interest form prior to the initiation of any contract and the start of the validation.

It is anticipated that the C-TPAT participants will be expected to pay for the services of the third party validators.

Labels: C-TPAT, China, Customs

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recently posted on its website a number of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program. The FAQs include some basic information on the "benefits" of participation in C-TPAT for importers and carriers.

Labels: C-TPAT, Customs

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has published the minutes of the May 15, 2007 meeting of the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC). The highlights of the meeting included:

• CBP continues to move forward with the Security Filing initiative, also known “10+2”. CBP's Office of Regulations and Rulings has completed its initial work on developing the draft Notice of Proposed Rule Making and CBP is reviewing that document internally. CBP does not yet know when the formal notice will be published in the Federal Register.

• With respect to C-TPAT, CBP reported that currently there are 7,031 certified members and all new applicants are being reviewed within 90 days, as required by SAFE Port Act. CBP has completed 4,200 validations and anticipates completing the 3,000 remaining validations by the end of the year. [This does not include the approximately 300 importers who source 75% or greater from China. These 300 importers are currently confined to C-TPAT Tier 1 and receiving minimum level of benefits since the Chinese government has denied CBP’s request to allow U.S. CBP specialists from performing validations in China.]
  

• CBP is working with the COAC supply chain security subcommittee on a proposal to utilize C-TPAT third party validators. An announcement of the best-qualified validator firms is expected soon.

• The COAC provided comments that were highly critical of the draft version of the Department of Homeland Security's “Strategy to Enhance International Supply Chain Security”, which is required by Sections 201 and 202 of the SAFE Port Act. Specifically, the COAC comments stated that "we do not believe the plan is actionable. A good plan should provide a clear set of instructions that are specific as to roles, responsibilities and actions to be taken. It should be a blue print that can be referred to in both planning and execution. The plan as written is general and very high level in describing roles and responsibilities. Until the detail is populated, we do not believe the plan is useful." The COAC's comments in Word format can be found at the following link.

• CBP is developing C-TPAT criteria for Mexican Long-Haulers and reviewing Third Party Logistics Providers minimum-security criteria.

• CBP has created the Unified Business Resumption Message (UBRM) service in order to advise the trade community in the U.S and Canada in the event of an incident that affects the flow of trade. Interested persons can subscribe to the UBRM via a RSS feed on the CBP website. [Note, the easiest way to subscribe to a RSS feed is via a news reader, such as Google Reader.]
  

• The next COAC meeting will be held in Washington, DC on August 16, 2007.

Labels: C-TPAT, Customs

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that it will hold a C-TPAT Supply Chain Security Training Seminar from April 3-7, 2007 in New Orleans. The program is open to certified C-TPAT members only.

According to CBP, the program will include joint Customs/Trade presentations, panel discussions and concurrent workshops on a number of supply chain security topics.

Registration will be conducted via an on-line registration process beginning January 15, 2007. Click the following link for more details on the program.

Labels: C-TPAT, Customs