Archive for the ‘CBP’ Category

Customs Publishes New Penalty Guidelines for Export Filing Errors

Friday, January 2nd, 2009 by Guest Author

On January 2, 2009, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published penalty guidelines for violations of the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR) issued by the U.S. Census Bureau (Census), which were amended on June 2, 2008, and became effective as of September 30, 2008. The amended FTR adopted new measures, such as a voluntary disclosure program, to mitigate violations of the FTR, which are subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $10,000 per violation. Violations can include the failure to file or the delayed filing of export information in the Automated Export System (AES) and the filing of false or misleading information in AES.

Authority to issue civil penalties to enforce the FTR has been delegated to CBP, which has published guidelines on how it will assess penalties for certain violations based on four mitigation schemes outlined as follows:

  • Penalties for the Failure to File Electronic Export Information (EEI) in AES
  • Penalties for the Late Filing of Electronic Export Information (EEI) in AES
  • Penalties for Various Other FTR Violations
  • Penalties for Carrier Filing Failures

Each penalty scheme follows a sequence of recorded offenses, typified by the following one for failure to file EEI:

  • First Recorded Offense – $750 to $2,500
  • Second Recorded Offense – $1000 to $3500
  • Third Recorded Offense – $1500 to $5000
  • Fourth and Subsequent Recorded Offense – $2000 to $10,000

(more…)

Posted in AES, CBP, FTS/Census, USA Regulations, Violations & Fines | Comments Off

Department of Homeland Security Effects Name Changes for ICE/CBP

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 by Jill Kincaid

As of April 17, 2007, The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection are no longer “bureaus.” The Department of Homeland Security announced that the official names for these departments will now be U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). All official documents referring to these agencies should now use these names/acronyms.

Posted in CBP, ICE | Comments Off

Changes to Harmonized Tariff System Implemented February 3, 2007

Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 by John Black

Gentlemen (and Ladies): Start Your HTS and Schedule B Classification Engines…

The International Trade Commission has announced that the final version of the 2007 Harmonized Tariff System (HTS)l became effective on February 3, 2007. This will include the World Customs Organization (WCO) changes. Changes will affect about 10% of the eight-digit codes. Importers have until February 20, 2007 to begin using the new HTS codes.

The ITC has posted a draft version on its website, but has committed to posting a the final version by January 22, 2007. The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will allow a 17-day grace period for importers to transition to the new system. This grace period will end on February 20, 2007. These implementation plans are posted on their website.

Bottom Line for Exporters:

The export version of the HTS (the Schedule B) was published by the Census Bureau on their website at the beginning of the year. The AES system will accept the old Schedule B Numbers through March 4, 2007.

Posted in AES, CBP, FTS/Census, HTS, ITC, USA Regulations, WCO | Comments Off

Say Goodbye to SEDs, Mandatory AES Nearly Here

Thursday, September 15th, 2005 by Scott Gearity

In what may truly be the most long-anticipated regulatory change in the export control arena, the Census Bureau is finally nearing its goal of mandating use of the Automated Export System (AES) in place of paper Shipper’s Export Declarations (SEDs) across-the-board. AES is already mandatory (since 2003) for the export of items on the United States Munitions List (USML) and the Commerce Control List (CCL), as well as rough diamonds subject to the Kimberly Process. In a February 17, 2005 notice of proposed rulemaking, Census reiterated its intent to extend the AES requirement to cover all exports from the US which currently require a SED. The threshold triggering the need for a SED under the current Census regulations – a value of more than $2,500 classified under an individual Schedule B or Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) commodity classification code – remains unchanged. (After all these years, an adjustment for inflation would be nice.) Exports valued at less than $2,500, but which require either a license from Commerce or a license or license exemption from State will continue to require AES reporting (data submitted via AES is now called “Electronic Export Information” or EEI).

Census solicited feedback with their February proposed rule, which they received in spades from over forty different exporters, carriers, trade associations, and even other federal government agencies. For those seeking to understand every nuance, impact, and possible criticism of the Census proposal, the comments are an excellent resource. (Although, unfortunately, when Census scanned the comments into Adobe Acrobat files they did not turn on the optical character recognition feature which would have made it possible to easily locate references to particular words or phrases.) I particularly recommend the response offered by the Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee (pdf, RPTAC), which identifies numerous inconsistencies and ambiguities in the Census proposal, and the comments from US Customs and Border Protection (pdf, CBP) which argues that even the very limited exemptions from filing EEI provide an unacceptable loophole for bad actors to exploit. CBP wants all exemptions eliminated, including the sub-$2,500 exclusion.

Census is expected to issue a final rule as early as this month, which will most likely go into effect sometime around the first day of the new year.

Posted in AES, CBP, CCL, FTS/Census, SED | Comments Off