Steel – Quote from President Trump

Now, Therefore, I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, and section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended, do hereby proclaim as follows: (1)  For the purposes of this proclamation, “steel articles” are defined at the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 6‑digit... Read More

Section 232 Tariffs – Steel & Aluminum (eff: Mar 23 2018)

It is becoming obvious that President Trump will prevail with is additional duties on basic Steel and Aluminum Products.  Certainly, an important aspect of this situation is the additional duty cost to importers, but also importers need to keep in mind the impact that these additional duties will have on the importers ability to maintain their U.S. Customs annual continuous bond.  Surety companies will most like require indemnity agreements and financial statements from steel and aluminum importers. ... Read More

CBP to increase Merchandise Processing Fee / Jan 1 2018

Customs Fees to Adjust on January 1, 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced in a recent Federal Register notice that the Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) will be adjusted and increased to account for inflation effective January 1, 2018. The new minimum MPF will be $25.67 and the new maximum MPF will be $497.99. The rate for calculating MPF (0.3464) remains unchanged. The MPF for informal entries will increase to $2.05. To review the notice and other scheduled fee increases, please... Read More

SOFTWOOD LUMBER – ADD – CVD Fact Sheet

November 2nd 2017 the Commerce Department announced its affirmative final determinations in the ADD (Antidumping duty) and CVD (Countervailing duty) investigations of imports of softwood lumber from Canada.  In the publications it indicates that the next steps will most likely occur on December 18th, 2017 when International Trade Commission (ITC) will make it’s final determination.  In general the “all other” Antidumping duty rate is 6.58% of the value, and the “all other”... Read More

FDA – FSVC Food Safety Verification Program

Starting May 27 2017 the FDA Will being implementing the FDA’s Food Supplier Verification Program (FSVP).  The central point in this risk based program requires that the ultimate purchaser in the USA to whom the FDA have identified as the importer or the person in the USA purchasing or buying the goods supply to the broker, 1) The DUNS# and 2) The FDA Registration Number.  To repeat the these numbers must be from the U.S. buyer / importer of the goods. A Canadian foreign Importer of Record... Read More

Pacific Highway Construction – Complete

CBP has completed the reconstruction of the truck crossing at the port of Blaine, Washington.  Three (3) lanes are currently open and all appears to be flowing well.  Our hats go off to our friends at U.S. Customs during the reconstruction phase, they did a wonderful job notifying the public of the process and doing what they could to mitigate delays. If you want to monitor port of entry delay times you can still make reference to CBP’s Border Wait Times page.    Read More

ACE E-Manifest Disconnect

At this time our office would like to post a few facts about an ongoing issue associated with the ACE E-Manifest transmissions and their frequent failure to link or connect to a brokers import entry.  If you haven’t noticed, you’re lucky as this has been an ongoing problem for four or five months now, and has become more prevalent following the full deployment of ‘core’ ACE at the end of August 2016. On October 11th, Steve Sanders was in Washington, DC meeting with the U.S.... Read More

FDA Biennial Registration Notice

The 2016 Biennial Registration Renewal Period begins Saturday, October 1, 2016 and ends on Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 11:59 PM. Section 415 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) [21 U.S.C. § 350d] requires food facilities required to register with FDA to renew such registrations during the period beginning on October 1 and ending on December 31 of each even-numbered year. If you register your food facility before October 1, 2016, you must renew your registration before... Read More

NOAA & ITDS (NMFS) – Tuna Imports

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a posting and deadline for companies importing fish products regulated by the NMFS to register.  Here is a link to the notice to importers, for your information.  You will have to copy and paste this into the URL address line of your web browser to view and download the document. http://www.sandersbrokerage.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NOAA-Tuna-imports.pdf    Read More

COTTON FEE – Rate Lowered and De Minimis rule eliminated

The Agricultural Marketing Services have modified their rule for the collection of Cotton Fees.  One of the impacts is the elimination of the “de minimis” rule.  CBP has corrected their (ACE entry) operating system to properly report and collect the formerly small (de minimis) dollar amounts of Cotton Fees.  Following is a posting by the Agriculture Marketing Services.  Summary: The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is amending the Cotton Board Rules and Regulations to remove... Read More