U.S. Customs and Border Protection February 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations, imported merchandise may be transported in-bond. This process allows imported merchandise to be entered at one U.S. port of entry without appraisement or payment of duties and transported by a bonded carrier to another U.S. port of entry provided all statutory and regulatory conditions are met. At the destination port, the merchandise is officially entered into the commerce of the United States and duties paid, or, the merchandise is exported. CBP is proposing various changes to the in-bond regulations to enhance CBP's ability to regulate and track in-bond merchandise and to ensure that the in-bond merchandise is properly entered and duties are paid or that the in-bond merchandise is exported. Among other things, the proposed changes would: eliminate the paper in-bond application (CBP Form 7512) and require carriers or their agents to electronically file the in-bond application; require additional information on the in-bond application including the six- digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule number, if available, and information relevant to the safety and security of the in-bond merchandise; establish a 30-day maximum time to transport in-bond merchandise between United States ports, for all modes of transportation except pipeline; require carriers to electronically request permission from CBP before diverting the in-bond merchandise from its intended destination port to another port; and require carriers to report the arrival and location of the in-bond merchandise within 24 hours of arrival at the port of destination or port of export. CBP also proposes various other changes, including the restructuring of the in-bond regulations, so that they are more logical and better track the in-bond process. At this time, CBP is not proposing to change the in-bond procedures found in the air commerce regulations, except to change certain times periods to conform to the proposed changes in this document.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of Homeland Security will be submitting the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act: NAFTA Regulations and Certificate of Origin. This is a proposed revision and extension of an information collection that was previously approved. CBP is proposing that this information collection be revised with a change to the burden hours. This document is published to obtain comments from the public and affected agencies. This proposed information collection was previously published in the Federal Register (77 FR 76983) on December 9, 2011, allowing for a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments. This process is conducted in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.10.

Certain vessels and aircraft owned or chartered by the Department of Defense (DoD) are exempt from entry requirements and, in some cases, reporting requirements upon their arrival in the United States from a foreign place. This rule proposes to expand those exemptions to include additional DoD-owned or chartered vessels and aircraft when transporting certain cargo or passengers.