Monday Morning eBriefing

It is with profound sadness that NCBFAA notifies our membership of the passing of John William James, former president of Savannah, Georgia-based John S. James Co., on July 18th at the age of 84.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will initiate a phased reopening of southern cattle ports, contingent on Mexico’s adherence to the Joint Action Plan. Starting Aug. 24, USDA will open the Douglas, Arizona port of entry to cattle trade, while simultaneously initiating the operational steps necessary for subsequent openings at the Santa Teresa and Columbus, New Mexico ports. Every animal entering the United States through these ports will undergo a full USDA inspection to ensure it is free of any signs of New World screwworm (NWS).

This Customs and Border Protection (CBP) guidance provides instructions for importers, customs brokers, and filers on submitting entries to CBP on imports subject to 10-12.5% Section 301 tariffs from 60 countries entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. ET on July 24.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced July 23 that it will proceed with imposing Section 301 tariffs on products from 60 countries ranging from 10% to 12.5%, effective 12:01 a.m. ET on July 24. “Trading partners that have made commitments to adopt, and effectively enforce, forced labor import prohibitions will have a 10% tariff, and trading partners that have failed to adopt a forced labor import prohibition will have a 12.5% tariff rate,” USTR said in a statement.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has discontinued the APHIS Core Message Set Help Desk phone line. Stakeholder support will be provided exclusively through APHIS' help desk email at ace.itds@usda.gov. Since 2021, APHIS has provided a support desk phone line to assist stakeholders with navigating data reporting requirements.

To improve entry filing for medical device shipments, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) routinely provides customs brokers with medical device error reports, if the customs broker subscribes. Many customs brokers have found these reports to be an invaluable tool to sharpen their compliance.

A summary of the latest customs and cross-border trade regulatory updates brought to you by our NCBFAA Customs Counsel firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg.

A summary of the latest legislative and regulatory transport, logistics and trade sector updates brought to you by our NCBFAA Transportation Counsel firm Venable.

President Trump in a July 22 Truth Social post said in two years that a 100% tariff will be imposed on U.S. generic drug imports regardless of the country of export, with an increase to 200% in two years.

Following the agency's change in the definition of shellfish, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued a series of questions and answers (FAQs) on the current requirements for importing or exporting shellfish. NCBFAA members who handle shellfish for their import-export clients should familiarize themselves with these FAQs.

On behalf of NCBFAA's Board of Directors, Leadership and Staff, we want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome Hashrails, PortVelocity International, and Stable Software, which have recently joined our association. We're so excited to have these firms join our organization and we are happy to assist in any way we can!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reminding businesses to protect their Food Facility Registration (FFR) information from potential misuse. The agency has become aware of several issues regarding when registration is required and potential misuse of FFR.

Per ACE Entry Summary Create/Update CATAIR, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) affirmed that additional Importer Declaration (54 Records) are not required for Country of Origins US, VI, GU, AS, UM, PR, or MP for aluminum, steel or copper details after July 16. Prior to July 16, this information is still required.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provided guidance to the trade regarding the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s action imposing 25% tariffs on all imports of Brazil, with certain exemptions, under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, effective July 22. Specifically, this guidance provides instructions to importers, customs brokers, and filers for submitting entries to CBP on articles which are imported from Brazil.

The U.S. and Jordanian governments in Washington, D.C., on July 21 signed an agreement on reciprocal trade. Among the benefits in the agreement, the White House said Jordan will continue to provide duty-free market access for almost all U.S. goods.

President Trump in three proclamations on July 20 said that his administration under Section 338 of the 1930 Trade Act will impose an additional ad valorem duty of 50% on certain products of Canada, effective 12:01 a.m. ET on Aug. 19, in response to Canada’s tariff rate quotas for dairy products, prohibition on imports and sales of U.S. alcoholic beverages, and lack of preferential, duty-free treatment under USMCA for U.S. vehicle imports.

President Trump on July 20 issued a proclamation based on the recommendation of the Commerce Secretary to reduce Section 232 tariff on certain aluminum imports if there are commitments from companies to pursue domestic production.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) notified the trade that it will deploy the implementation of Entry Type 13 Test for U.S. Mail Processing (INT-057) and Mail Entry Type 13 Test (CBP-290) enhancements to ACE on Sept. 22. These enhancements became available in the ACE Certification (CERT) environment on July 24 and will be deployed to the Production (PROD) environment on Sept. 22, the agency said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will meet with its Mexican counterpart in Mexico City on July 21 for the third bilateral negotiating round related to the Joint Review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Negotiating teams will convene for three days to advance discussions on issues regarding trade in steel and aluminum and derivative products, automobiles, economic security, labor, agriculture, and electronic payment services.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) notified the trade that on Saturday, July 18, it will deploy a new validation in ACE for import adjustment offsets for Section 232 duties on automobile and medium and heavy-duty vehicle parts. An updated version of the ACE CATAIR Error Dictionary V51 has been posted under the Supporting Documents: Documentation for Entry Summary Chapters section on CBP.gov.