U.S. Customs and Border Protection December 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This rule adjusts for inflation the amounts that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can assess as civil monetary penalties for the following two violationstransporting passengers coastwise for hire by certain vessels (known as Bowaters vessels) that do not meet specified conditions; and employing a vessel in a trade without a required Certificate of Documentation. These adjustments are being made in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (2015 Act) which was enacted on November 2, 2015. Other CBP civil penalty amounts were adjusted pursuant to this 2015 Act in rule documents published in the Federal Register on July 1, 2016; January 27, 2017; December 8, 2017; and April 2, 2018, but the adjustments for these two civil penalties were inadvertently left out of those documents.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is cognizant of the need to stay modern in order to meet the challenges of an evolving trade landscape. New actors, industries, and modes of conducting business have emerged, disrupting the traditional global supply chain. To continue to effectively fulfill CBP's mission, CBP is pursuing an initiative titled ``The 21st Century Customs Framework.'' ``The 21st Century Customs Framework'' will seek to address and enhance numerous aspects of CBP's trade mission to better position CBP to operate in the 21st century trade environment. Through preliminary efforts, CBP has identified key themes for which CBP seeks public input: Emerging Roles in the Global Supply Chain, Intelligent Enforcement, Cutting-Edge Technology, Data Access and Sharing, 21st Century Processes, and Self- Funded Customs Infrastructure. To that end, CBP is announcing a public meeting to discuss these themes. CBP will use the public comments received in response to this notice to initiate discussion at the public meeting for CBP to consider possible policy, regulatory, and statutory improvements to further the trade mission. CBP is already pursuing related efforts through the Border Interagency Executive Council and the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee and is ensuring coordination among these initiatives.

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to CBP regulations, that AmSpec LLC (Yorktown, VA), has been approved to gauge petroleum and certain petroleum products and accredited to test petroleum and certain petroleum products for customs purposes for the next three years as of August 14, 2018.

This document adopts as final, with changes, proposed amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations implementing changes to the drawback regulations, as directed by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA). These regulations establish new processes for drawback pursuant to TFTEA, which liberalize the merchandise substitution standard, simplify recordkeeping requirements, extend and standardize timelines for filing drawback claims, and require the electronic filing of drawback claims. This document also provides details with respect to the process required to perfect TFTEA-based claims filed under CBP's Interim Guidance procedures. Further, this document also finalizes regulations clarifying the prohibition on the filing of a substitution drawback claim for internal revenue excise tax in situations where no excise tax was paid upon the substituted merchandise or where the substituted merchandise is the subject of a different claim for refund or drawback of tax.

This document provides notice that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') has issued a final determination concerning the country of origin of certain jet fuel. Based upon the facts presented, CBP has concluded that the country of origin of this jet fuel is India for purposes of U.S. Government procurement.