CBP’s Proposed Rule
On September 10, 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding broker continuing education. In the proposed rule, CBP is proposing mandatory continuing education requirements for individual licensed brokers. CBP underscores the benefits of mandatory continuing education for customs brokers in its proposed rule:
On December 29, 2020, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced long-awaited extensions to a limited set of previously granted exclusions (for COVID-related products), that were set to expire on December 31, 2020. Meanwhile, importers across non-COVID industries are continuing to await guidance on their tariff exclusion extensions that are set to expire on December 31, 2020.
What are the Centers for Excellence and Expertise?
CBP is changing how it does business. CBP envisions an end to port shopping and uniform decision making throughout all ports of entry via use of the Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEE). We previously advised our readers that a CEE was arriving in Miami!
By way of background, in 2012, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published a Federal Register notice (77 FR 52048) that “developed a test to incrementally transition the operational trade functions that traditionally reside with port directors to the CEE.” The purpose of the test was to expand the CEEs’ ability to make decisions, by allowing the directors of the CEE to make decisions that were normally reserved for port directors. CBP’s goal for the CEEs is to “facilitate trade, reduce transaction costs, increase compliance with applicable port laws, and to achieve uniformity of treatment at the ports of entry for the identified industries (77 FR 52048).”
CBP discussed the application process, and urged importers to apply to a CEE to begin receiving the benefits of being a participating account early.