Former News Items
August 21, 2008: The Bureau of Industry and Security issues a final rule amending the Export Administration Regulations to include on the Entity List and to require export licenses for those persons acting control to the national security of foreign policy interests of the United States. Please contact this office for additional information or click here.
August 7, 2008: Effective October 15, 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin to enforce the existing requirement that all standard maritime containers arriving in the United States, including foreign cargo remaining on board, must be sealed with a high security seal which meets the ISO/PAS 17712 standard. Please click here for additional information.
July 29, 2008: President Bush Signs H.J.Res. 93, the Renewal of Import Restrictions on Burma, and H.R.3890, the Tom Lantos Block Burmese Jade (junta's Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act of 2008 on July 29, 2008.
July 25, 2008: US Customs and Border Protection has released its Policy Regarding Border Search of Information. You may view the document by clicking on this link.
June 2, 2008: U.S. Census Bureau amended its regulations to require the mandatory filing of Shipper's Export Declaration information through the AES system. The changes are effective June 2, 2008 but will not be implemented until September 30, 2008. Please contact this office for additional information or click here.
April 24, 2008: The United States Environmental Protection Agency has developed a checklist to assist importers in determining how to certify chemical imports under the Toxic Substance Control Act. Please contact this office for additional information or click here.
April 11, 2008: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has clarified the Post Entry Amendment process in that entries that liquidate without consideration of the PEA may be reliquidated by CBP under 19 USC 1501 or the importer may file a separate protest. Post Entry Amendments will not be treated as a protest under 19 USC 1514. Please contact our office for additional information or click here.
March 5, 2008: As one of the largest and most complicated European Union legislations, the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals Regulation (REACH) is expected to be enforced starting June of 2008. This complex legislation, covering 849 pages, has far reaching implications for European suppliers and industrial users of chemicals as well as international exporters of chemicals to Europe. Please contact our office for more information on this legislation, or click here for the full text.
February 19, 2008: In Sakar International, Inc. v. United States, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the seizure of counterfeit merchandise is not an embargo. Please contact our office or click here for additional information.
February 4, 2008: ECCN reporting in AES will change for various license exceptions under the Export Administration Regulations effective April 28, 2008. Please contact our office or click here for additional information.
January 24, 2008: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has proposed to redefine the phase "sold for exportation to the United States" and the valuation methods used for multi-tiered sales transactions. Under this proposal, the price paid or payable in the last sale prior to importation into the United States shall be the dutiable value instead of the price paid on the first or earlier sale. Please contact our office or click here for additional information.
December 14, 2007: President Bush has signed the U.S. - Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act into law. The agreement will not take affect until differences in U.S. and Peruvian law are resolved and the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States is amended. Please contact our office or click here for additional information.
November 14, 2007: Customs and Border Protection has issued new minimum security criteria for Air Carriers participating in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program. Please contact our office or click here for additional information.
October 19, 2007: The Bureau of Industry and Security will amend the Export Administration Regulations to list the names of end-users in the People's Republic of China that have been approved to receive exports, reexports and transfers of certain items under the "Authorization Validated End-User" (VEU) authorization. This amendment is effective as of November 19, 2007. Please click here for additional information.
September 17, 2007: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a final rule, effective October 17, 2007, to clarify that to claim an exemption from the merchandise processing fee for unconditionally duty-free merchandise that is originating under the NAFTA treaty, an importer is subject to the same declaration requirements as those for obtaining preferential duty rates. Please click here for additional information.
September 11, 2007: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed a Court of International Trade ruling that utilitarian goods are not excluded from classification as Festive Articles. The Court of Appeals also discounted the amended Explanatory Notes, which exclude utilitarian items as Festive Goods, as they are nonbinding and are contrary to the CAFC opinion. Please click here for additional information.
September 7, 2007: September 7, 2007: September 7, 2007: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its website a report on the results of a cost-benefit survey conducted with the participants in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program. Over fifty-six percent of respondents stated that the benefits of C-TPAT membership outweighed or were equal to the costs and thirty-five percent reported a reduced number of Customs inspections. Please click here for additional information.
August 21, 2007 U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it has discontinued the Supplemental Information Letter entry correction program and made several changes to the Post-Entry Amendment procedure. Click here for additional information.
July 5, 2007 The Bureau of Industry and Security has updated the Unverified List of foreign persons where pre-license checks or post-shipment verifications of past shipments could not be conducted. The Export Administration Regulations ("EAR") require that an exporter verify that a transaction involving an entity on this list does not involve a proliferation activity prohibited by the EAR and does not violate any other provisions of the export regulations. Click here for additional information.
June 19, 2007 The Bureau of Industry and Security has amended the Export Administration Regulations to revise licensing requirements for the export and reexport of items having a military end-use in China. For additional information, go to this page.
June 5, 2007 The Bureau of Industry and Security has proposed to amend the Export Administration Regulations to permit the Entity List to include those entities that are involved in activities that are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. For additional information, go here.
April 20, 2007 The U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division's AES Compliance Review Program has begun. During this review program, the Foreign Trade Division will be meeting with companies that file SED information through AES to ensure compliance and reporting accuracy of the AES filer. For additional information, go to this page.
April 9, 2007 U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it is developing procedures that will provide added benefits to certain C-TPAT members. Under the process being developed, CBP will allow select importers to move containers not identified for examination to destination for storage pending the results of the exam on the targeted container. This repositioning will reduce the demurrage otherwise charged by the terminal for storing containers that, while listed on the entry, are not part of an examination. For additional details, please contact this office.
April 6, 2007 The United States International Trade Commission has issued the first revision to the official 2007 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. Please contact this office for additional information or click here.
March 30, 2007 Customs and Border Protection has issued guidelines for liquidated damages and penalties on imported wood packing material found to be in violation of the required treatment and marking regulations. Please contact this office for additional information or follow this link.
March 27, 2007 ITT Corporation has agreed to pay a penalty of $100 million for the export of defense articles without a license and omission of facts in arms exports reporting. Included in the violations was an export which consisted of a facsimile of "a drawing package" of controlled equipment which was sent to a potential foreign supplier. For additional information, please contact this office or go here.
March 7, 2007 The Bureau of Industry and Security has published a white paper on the BIS handling of Voluntary Self Disclosures that have been submitted by exporters. The document explains the BIS review and mitigation process along with results of recent self-disclosures. For additional information, please contact our office or go to this site for more.
February 14, 2007 Customs and Border Protection has announced plans to revalidate the 1,200 companies that joined the C-TPAT program in 2003 and 2004. The revalidation is a result of CBP moving from suggested supply chain security guidelines to required minimum criteria. Please contact our office for additional information.
February 6, 2007 The International Trade Administration has published the changes to the 2007 HTS that affect steel licensing requirements, as of February 2, 2003.For complete information, or assistance, please contact our office or visit here. The Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) team newsletter can be viewed by clicking here.
January 26, 2007 CBP has issued a final rule, effective April 1, which will increase various fees charged by CBP for services related to the inspection of commercial vessels, trucks, railcars, aircraft, and passengers, as well as the inspection of dutiable mail and fees for annual customs broker permits. For additional information, please contact this office or go to this link.
January 9, 2007 The Department of Commerce has issued a final rule, effective January 9, increasing civil monetary penalties for certain export violations from $11,000 to $50,000. In the Notice, Commerce states that the actual penalty assessed for a particular violation will continue to be dependent upon a variety of factors. For additional information, please contact our office or visit here.
January 10, 2007 The Office of Foreign Asset Control has published a detailed booklet summarizing current trade embargos and sanctions as well as the responsibilities of the international trade community under the OFAC laws and regulations. Please contact our office for additional details or visit here.
January 12, 2007 The online export licensing application system SNAP will be decommissioned by the Bureau of Industry and Security beginning at 11:30PM EST January 12, 2007. The new Simplified Network Application Process Redesign (SNAP-R) is available for immediate use by the exporting community. For additional information, including a review of the features of SNAP-R, please contact this office or go to this site for more info.
December 1, 2006 The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has issued new guidelines, effective as of December 6, 2006, that reduce the extent to which CBP will mitigate penalties assessed for the removal and/or delivery of merchandise without CBP authorization or examination. Please contact our office for complete details.
November 27, 2006 The Bureau of Industry and Security has amended the Export Administration Regulations to add "Montenegro" and "Serbia" as separate countries in the EAR each with separate export licensing requirements. For additional information, please contact our office or review this link.
November 24, 2006 The Bureau of Industry and Security has amended the Export Administration Regulations to implement changes to the control of certain biological agents and the control of dual-use chemical manufacturing facilities and equipment. For additional information, please contact our office or review this link.
November 20, 2006 The Bureau of Industry and Security has amended the Export Administration Regulations by imposing new export and reexport controls on those devices with a primary use of surreptitiously intercepting wire, oral, or electronic communications. For additional information, please contact our office or review this link.
November 17, 2006 OFAC released guidance on the Sudan sanctions program today. Click here to view more.
October 31, 2006 The European Commission has published regulations for the implementation of the amended Common Customs Tariff for the European Union as of January 1, 2007. The amended tariff for the EU will include the hundreds of heading and subheading changes recommended by the World Customs Organization. For additional information, please contact our office. The complete 880-page combined tariff can be viewed at this site.
October 27, 2006 The Mexican government will soon introduce a new duty-deferral program which combines the current Maquiladora and PITEX programs into a combined program named IMEX. The new IMEX program simplifies the operations under the current Maquiladora and PITEX programs and offers special benefits for certain participants. Please contact our office for more information.
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