In retaliation to President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from China, Beijing has now imposed additional tariffs on 128 food and beverage commodities imported from the U.S. The Chinese government will begin enforcing these extra tariffs on Monday, April 2nd. The tariffs will affect around $3 billion worth of U.S. products. 120 products […]

At this moment, CBP cannot make any changes or upload the new tax rates to ACE that reflects the excise tax cuts for beer, wine, and distilled spirits that took effect January 1st; they are waiting for implementation guidance from Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). As such, importers, as well as brokers […]

Effective January 1st, the products that were once eligible for being duty-free under special program indicators “A”, “A+”, and “A*” are now subject to normal duty rates when imported. While CBP still requests that GSP eligible items are identified with an indicator, the goods are dutiable until further notice. To ensure importers receive duty refunds […]

As you may know, after several delays, it appears that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will finally be rolling out statement processing via their portal Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) on January 8, 2018. While we have every hope that this deployment proceeds without incident, it is very possible that Customs will experience glitches along the […]

The expiration of Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is right around the corner!  Assuming the program expires, the products once eligible for being duty-free under special program indicators “A”, “A+”, and “A*” will now be subject to normal duty rates when imported. While CBP still requests that GSP eligible items are identified with an indicator, […]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced that the Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) will be adjusted for inflation effective January 1, 2018. The MPF is assessed by U.S. Customs on most imports into the U.S.  The calculation rate, which is 0.3464 percent of declared cargo value, will remain unchanged. However, the minimum MPF will […]

Midnight of December 31st, 2017 isn’t just the end of the year, it is also when the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is set to expire. The products once eligible for being duty free under special program indicators “A”, “A+”, and “A*” will now be paying normal duty rates when imported. While CBP still requests […]

Mark your calendars! Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced July 8, 2017 as the effective date for transition to make the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) the sole electronic data interchange (EDI) system authorized by the Commissioner of CBP for processing electronic drawback, duty deferral entry and entry summary filings. After the effective date, the Automated Commercial System (ACS) will no […]

Attention food importers! The May 30 deadline to comply with FDA’s Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) is mandatory and right around the corner. The Food Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) rule is intended to be a flexible, risk-based program to verify that foreign suppliers are producing their food in compliance with processes that meet the FDA’s […]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin to implement “Establishing Enhanced Collection and Enforcement of Antidumping and Countervailing Duties and Violations of Trade and Customs Laws.” The Executive Order, signed on March 31, promotes the efficient and effective administration of U.S. Customs and trade laws by establishing enhanced measures to collect duties and a heightened enforcement […]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a final rule regarding the importation of Chemical Substances and Mixtures Subject to EPA’s Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA), eliminating the old TSCA Blanket Certification process. While the original effective date was temporarily postponed, CBP has announced an implementation deadline of March 20, 2017. The new ruling will […]

FDA is currently experiencing outages across many applications, which prevents the processing of entries. The technical team is currently investigating. As a result, FDA’s Division of Food Defense Targeting will be operating under the prior notice scenario 2 contingency. These issues will prevent submitters who file via Automated Broker Interface (ABI) from receiving Prior Notice […]

As the new year comes in, so do new regulations form U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the importation of Chemical Substances and Mixtures Subject to EPA’s Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA). CBP issued a final rule in the Federal Register on December 27, 2016 eliminating the old TSCA […]

Scenario 1: Vessel Diverted to Foreign Port and Discharged: A Hanjin vessel does not arrive in the intended U.S. port and diverts to a foreign port to discharge freight. The manifest and Importer Security Filing (ISF) must be deleted. All bills of lading need to be deleted (not cancelled) Entries and entry summaries need to […]

Customs & Border Protection (CBP) at U.S. ports is no longer required to send requests for liquidated damages (LD) to its Headquarters for approval. Non-compliant Importer Security Filings can result in cargo holds at the port instead of, or in addition to, liquidated damage claims. Additionally, liquidated damage claims against importer bonds will no longer […]

Shapiro is fully programmed for all FDA filings and has been actively filing FDA though ACE for many months.   Under the ACE platform FDA is requiring additional, and in many cases new information, to be submitted in import entries.  Specifically all entries for FDA Food, Cosmetics and Medical Devices are affected. Below is a list […]

As of June 16, CBP will require filing in ACE of FDA entries and entry summaries under entry types 01, 03, 06, 11, 23, 51 and 52. CBP boldly stated that the Automated Commercial System (ACS) “will no longer be a CBP-authorized [electronic system] for purposes of processing these electronic filings.” While the agency concedes […]

On Wednesday, February 24, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (H.R. 644).  The comprehensive authorization is the first overhaul of the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) since 2003.  The bipartisan legislation seeks to strengthen trade enforcement at ports, to fortify detection of duty […]

On Thursday, February 11th, the U.S. Senate passed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (H.R. 644), the first overhaul of the United States’ Customs and Border Protection Agency in over 15 years. The legislation will give teeth to programs protecting U.S. businesses from unfair trade practices and rampant ‘trade cheats.’ The bill […]

With the ACE February 28th deadline looming, many filers are reporting various technical problems involving FDA processing that are resulting in extreme issues across the board. To outline some examples: Messages are not returning to the filer’s software at all. The FDA Review is received, but there is no follow up message Rejected FDA entries […]