U.S. Customs and Border Protection August 27, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document announces U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP's) plan to conduct a test concerning the manifesting and entry of residual cargo found in containers arriving as Instruments of International Traffic (IIT). The document also announces that CBP will begin enforcement of HQ Ruling H026715, dated June 19, 2009, when the test announced in this document begins. In HQ Ruling H026715, CBP held that in order to ensure the safety and security of the transportation of IIT containers and the CBP Officers who may examine or work in close proximity to them, IIT containers with residual cargo should not be manifested as empty consistent with the advance cargo information reporting requirements authorized pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 2071 note. The modified ruling, HQ H026715, requires that residue within containers be ``classified, entered, and manifested.'' CBP recognizes that the trade community believes that the requirement to manifest and enter for residual cargo in accordance with the current regulations would be overly burdensome. As a result, CBP, with input from the trade, has developed a test in order to determine a less burdensome way for the trade to manifest and enter residual cargo in IITs while also ensuring the safety and security of CBP Officers and the transportation of such IITs. Accordingly, this test will allow for a new type of entry designed to capture residue in containers that will be cleaned or re-filled that can be made off the manifest through an indicator that identifies it as a Residue Entry. Parties not wishing to participate in the test, however, will be required to ``classify, enter, and manifest'' (formal or informal entry) the residual cargo in accordance with the underlying statutes and their implementing regulations when the test begins.

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to CBP regulations, that Inspectorate America Corporation, has been approved to gauge and accredited to test petroleum and petroleum products, organic chemicals and vegetable oils for customs purposes for the next three years as of March 14, 2013.