19 CFR Part 10, Subpart G - United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement

This final rule amends U.S. Customs and Border Protection regulations regarding the requirements to provide data for certain exported cargo to conform to current requirements. Various CBP regulations regarding exported cargo refer to outdated regulations or requirements of the U.S. Census Bureau, including the requirement to submit a paper Shipper's Export Declaration (SED). The U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR) have been amended to eliminate the SED and to require that the information that was previously provided on the paper SED be filed electronically through the Automated Export System. This rule amends the CBP regulations to incorporate the current requirements. The rule also makes related conforming changes as well as non-substantive editorial and nomenclature changes.

This document provides an additional 60 days for interested parties to submit comments on the interim final rule that amended the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations establishing the Centers of Excellence and Expertise (“Centers”) as a permanent organizational component of the agency and transitioning certain additional trade functions to the Centers. The interim final rule was published in the Federal Register on December 20, 2016, with comments due on or before January 19, 2017. To have as much public participation as possible in the formulation of the final rule, CBP is extending the comment period to March 20, 2017.

In 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) developed a test to incrementally transition the operational trade functions that traditionally reside with port directors to the Centers of Excellence and Expertise (Centers). The purpose of the test was to broaden the ability of the Centers to make decisions by waiving certain identified regulations to the extent necessary to provide the Center directors, who manage the Centers, with the authority to make the decisions normally reserved for the port directors. At this time, CBP is prepared to end the test and establish the Centers as a permanent organizational component of the agency and to transition certain additional trade functions to the Centers. This rule amends the CBP regulations on an interim basis to implement this organizational change by: Defining the Centers and the Center directors; amending the definition for port directors to distinguish their functions from those of the Center directors; identifying the Center management offices; explaining the process by which importers will be assigned to Centers; providing the importer with an appeals process for its Center assignment; identifying the regulatory functions that will be transitioned from the port directors to the Center directors and those that will be jointly carried out by the port directors and the Center directors; and providing clarification in applicable regulations that payments and documents may continue to be submitted at the ports of entry or electronically.

This document amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection regulations to implement section 901 of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 by raising from $200 to $800 the value of certain articles that may be imported by one person on one day free of duty and tax. This document also makes clarifying and conforming amendments to the regulations.

This document adopts as a final rule, with one change, interim amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations that were published in the Federal Register on February 10, 2015, as CBP Dec. 15-03, to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published an Interim Final Rule (CBP Dec. 15-14) on October 13, 2015, in the Federal Register, which amends the CBP regulations to reflect that on November 1, 2015, the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) will be a CBP-authorized Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) System. That document erroneously included language in Amendatory Instruction 38 that was not consistent with the text of the existing CFR. This document corrects the text in Amendatory Instruction 38.

This document amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations to reflect that on November 1, 2015, the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) will be a CBP-authorized Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) System. This regulatory document informs the public that the Automated Commercial System (ACS) is being phased out as a CBP-authorized EDI System for the processing electronic entry and entry summary filings (also known as entry filings). ACE will replace the Automated Commercial System (ACS) as the CBP-authorized EDI system for processing commercial trade data. This document also announces the conclusion of the ACE Cargo Release and the Entry Summary, Accounts and Revenue tests with regard to the entry and entry summary requirements that are now part of the CBP regulations.

This rule amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection regulations on an interim basis to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement entered into by the United States and the Commonwealth of Australia.

This document adopts as a final rule, with some changes, interim amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations which were published in the Federal Register on October 5, 2000, as T.D. 00-67, and later amended by T.D. 03-15 published in the Federal Register on March 21, 2003, to implement the trade benefit provisions for sub-Saharan Africa contained in Title I of the Trade and Development Act of 2000, as amended. The trade benefits under Title I, also referred to as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), apply to sub-Saharan African countries designated by the President and involve: The extension of duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) to non-textile articles normally excluded from GSP duty-free treatment that are not import-sensitive; and the entry of specific textile and apparel articles free of duty and free of any quantitative limits. The regulatory amendments adopted as a final rule in this document reflect and clarify the statutory standards for preferential tariff treatment under the AGOA, as amended by section 3108 of the Trade Act of 2002 and include other amendments necessitated by passage of the AGOA Acceleration Act of 2004 and the Africa Investment Incentive Act of 2006. This final rule includes specific documentary, procedural and other related requirements that must be met in order to obtain preferential treatment. This document also adopts as a final rule interim amendments to the CBP regulations implementing the GSP which were included in T.D. 00-67 to conform those regulations to previous amendments to the GSP statute. Moreover, this document adopts as a final rule other changes to the AGOA implementing regulations made by T.D. 03-15 to clarify several issues that arose after their original publication.

This document adopts as a final rule interim amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations which were published in the Federal Register on October 23, 2013, as CBP Dec. 13-17, to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement.

This rule amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations on an interim basis to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement entered into by the United States and the Republic of Panama.

This document adopts as a final rule, with some changes, interim amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations which were published in the Federal Register on September 26, 2012, as CBP Dec. 12-16, to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.

This document adopts as a final rule, with two changes, interim amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) regulations which were published in the Federal Register on March 19, 2012, as CBP Dec. 12-03, to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement entered into by the United States and the Republic of Korea.

Currently, for any merchandise valued over $2,000, CBP requires importers to provide a surety bond, complete CBP form 7501, and pay a minimum of $25 in Merchandise Processing Fees (MPF). The final rule increases the limit, from $2,000 to $2,500, for which merchandise may qualify for an “informal entry”, thereby eliminating the need for a surety bond, expediting the customs clearance process, and reducing the required MPF amount to $2 (assuming the entries are filed electronically). CBP is increasing the informal entry limit to mitigate the effects of inflation and in addition, to meet a commitment of the Beyond the Border Initiative between the United States and Canada, to increase and harmonize the value thresholds to $2,500 for expedited customs clearance from the current levels of $2,000 for the United States and $1,600 for Canada. This document also removes the language requiring formal entry for certain articles that were formerly subject to absolute quotas under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing because CBP no longer needs to require formal entries for these articles. This document also makes a technical conforming amendment to reflect a recent statutory amendment that increased the ad valorem Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) from 0.21 percent to 0.3464 percent. Finally, this document makes non-substantive editorial and nomenclature changes.

This document adopts as a final rule, with one change, interim amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations which were published in the Federal Register on November 3, 2011, as CBP Dec. 11-22, to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.

This rule amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations on an interim basis to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement entered into by the United States and the Republic of Colombia.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register on February 22, 2012, proposing various changes to the in-bond regulations to enhance CBP's ability to regulate and track in-bond merchandise and to ensure that the in-bond merchandise is properly entered and duties are paid or that the in-bond merchandise is exported. In that document, CBP published a summary of its analysis under the Regulatory Flexibility Act and stated that the complete Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) was posted on the regulations.gov Web site. As CBP inadvertently failed to post the IRFA on the docket when the NPRM was published, CBP is notifying the public that the IRFA has now been posted and is seeking comments on the conclusion in the NPRM and the IRFA that the rule may have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

This rule amends the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations on an interim basis to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement.