CBP Requiring AED on All Postal
Shipments from China
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is
requiring advance electronic data on all mail
shipments from China, Hong Kong and Macau
as of January 1, 2019. Carriers, both air and
ocean, will confirm with China Postal officials
that the advance data has been filed before
loading the mail on their conveyance. The
Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose
Prevention (STOP) Act, signed into law in
October of 2018, requires Advance Electronic
Data (AED) on all postal shipments from
China in 2019 and from the rest of the world
by 2020. Early enforcement will begin by not
penalizing carriers for having mail this does
not have 100% AED, but will move to full
enforcement shortly.
CBP issued a Cargo Systems Messaging
Service (CSMS) message on the action that
can be found on CBP’s website.
ITC Furloughed, No Updates to HTSUS
The United States International Trade
Commission (ITC) maintains the Harmonized
Tariff Schedules of the United States (HTSUS).
Many persons that classify products for
import no longer need the hard copy version
of the HSTUS when the ITC version on its
website is so easy to pull up. The ITC posts
changes as soon as they are available.
Under the government shutdown, the ITC is
one of the agencies that is completely
furloughed. The HTSUS that is currently on
the ITC website is the 2015 with multiple
revisions that bring it up to 2018. It can be
viewed at the ITC’s website. The HTSUS has
not been updated for the 2019 changes and
will not be updated until the shutdown is
over.
Section 301 Exclusions Cannot be
Applied to Entries or Refunds
Yet!
Last week we sent out a special memo
about the Office of the United States Trade
Representative’s (USTR) approved
exclusions from list one of the Section 301
China Tariffs. While the exclusions are in
effect, the filing of entries citing the
exclusion and not paying the 25% additional
duty cannot be done.
The changes to the affected HTS numbers
must be programmed in ACE for the entries
to be accepted. Unfortunately, this
announcement came out after the start of
the government shutdown and the
programmers that handle the HTSUS in ACE
have been furloughed. This means that
filing of entries under the approved
exclusions will not be allowed until after the
shutdown is over. CBP will not be able to
accept Post Summary Corrections either,
since the correction requires
retransmission even after the shutdown is
over. CBP has said it will take up to 10 days
after the programmers are back to finish
the programming. However, the exclusions
are retroactive to the first day that the 25%
additional duty was required and refunds
can still be requested when the
programming is completed.
The USTR is still reviewing request for
exclusions from list two and has not
published instructions for requests of
exclusion from list three. will be working. This includes U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers that process passengers and cargo, man Radiation Portal Monitors (RPM’s), and other important commercial services.
Christmas Eve and the Government
This year, Christmas will fall on a Tuesday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees are usually allowed to go home very early on Christmas Eve. The expense of opening up all systems on the Monday after a weekend before Christmas and then closing down so early has usually outweighed the value of opening for just the half day. Traditionally, many past Presidents have closed the Monday before Christmas and declared a national holiday. Do not be surprised by a last-minute announcement if the government is not shutdown on December 21.