Their collection process is in full swing.  Importers receiving duty increase bills are advised to pay the bills as quickly as possible.  Delaying payment or not issuing payment to the U.S. Government could cause CBP (Customs) to revoke your import privileges.

To reiterate we provide these bullet points:

• Please pay the invoice within time frames to avoid added interest charges or loss of import privileges.
• Invoices being processed for payment past the due date must include any additional interest fees noted.
• Checks must be drawn on U.S. banks (this is our understanding).
• Checks must be made payable in U.S. Funds.

The remainder of this posting is from our original posting on June 19, 2012.

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Following is a quote from the CBP message system dated June 15th, 2012.  (Posted by Sanders Brokerage Services)

The purpose of this memorandum is to announce that the Office of International Trade will begin billing for the increase in merchandise processing fee (MPF), as established by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011 (TAA), retroactively effective on October 1, 2011. CBP automated system programming was completed in November 2011 and ACS began accepting the new MPF rate on November 5, 2011. CBP could not begin the retroactive billing process for merchandise entered between October 1, 2011 and November 4, 2011 until the refund processing was completed for the Generalized System of Preferences, Andean Trade Preference Act, and the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act retroactive renewals.

The Entry, Summary, and Drawback Branch (ESD) will script liquidate entries with a future liquidation date to generate a bill for the additional MPF due. Differences of less than $20.00 are de minimis, and as such will not be processed for retroactive MPF. Entries which are flagged for reconciliation shall have the MPF increase accounted for via the reconciliation entry. Once the scripting begins, ESD will post weekly results on CBPnet Secure at the following link: https://cbpnetsecure.cbp.dhs.gov/sites/ot/tpp/tfa/Pages/Welcome.aspx. Entries for which CBP system successfully generated a bill will be listed in the file titled, “MPF Increases”. This list is being provided to the ports for use as back-up documentation in relation to the B12 report (Bulletin Notice of Entries Liquidated – by Batch and Sequence). Entries that failed the scripting process will be available via the same link, in the file titled, “MPF Script Errors”. Ports must manually liquidate all entries that are included in this list.

New Requirements For All Importers of Solar Panels:

Antidumping and countervailing duties are required on imports of solar cells and panels from China, including solar panels produced in a third-country from Chinese solar cells.   Importers of solar panels from all countries that do not contain Chinese solar cells are required to certify that the imported solar panels do not contain Chinese solar cells, and to provide this certification at the request of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).  If an importer does not provide this certification at the request of CBP, the U.S. Department of Commerce has instructed CBP to collect antidumping and countervailing duties on the corresponding imports of solar panels.

Importers of solar panels exported from China not containing Chinese solar cells are also required to maintain a certification from the exporter.  If importers of this merchandise do not provide both the importer and exporter certification at the request of CBP, the U.S. Department of Commerce has instructed CBP to collect antidumping and countervailing duties on the corresponding imports of solar panels.
These certifications should not be provided as part of the entry document package, unless specifically requested by CBP.  CBP may also request additional documentation supporting the certification.
For more information, see AD/CVD messages 2153302, 2158303, 2087303 and 2163303 available on ACE and ADDCVD Search (http://addcvd.cbp.gov/)