U.S. Customs and Border Protection January 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document notifies the public that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), with the approval of the Secretary of Homeland Security, has determined that certain palm oil and derivative products made wholly or in part with palm oil produced by Sime Darby Plantation Berhad, its subsidiaries, and joint ventures with the use of convict, forced or indentured labor, are being, or are likely to be, imported into the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection 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 of 1995 (PRA). The information collection is published in the Federal Register to obtain comments from the public and affected agencies.

This Notification announces the decision of the Secretary of Homeland Security (``Secretary''), after consulting with interagency partners, to temporarily restrict travel by certain noncitizens into the United States at land ports of entry, including ferry terminals (``land POEs'') along the United States-Canada border. These restrictions only apply to noncitizens who are neither U.S. nationals nor lawful permanent residents (``noncitizen non-LPRs''). Under the temporary restrictions, DHS will allow processing for entry into the United States of only those noncitizen non-LPRs who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and can provide proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 upon request. The restrictions provide for limited exceptions, largely consistent with the limited exceptions currently available with respect to COVID-19 vaccination in the international air travel context. Unlike past actions of this type, this Notification does not contain an exception for essential travel.

This document announces that the export certification requirement for certain imports of beef from the Argentine Republic (Argentina) subject to a tariff-rate quota will be accomplished through the Electronic Certification System (eCERT). All imports of beef from Argentina that are subject to the tariff-rate quota must have a valid export certificate with a corresponding eCERT transmission at the time of entry, or withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption. The United States Government (USG) has approved the request from Argentina to transition, from the way the USG currently receives export certificates from Argentina, to eCERT as the method of transmission. The transition to eCERT will not change the tariff-rate quota filing process or requirements. Importers will continue to provide the export certificate numbers from Argentina in the same manner as when currently filing entry summaries with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The format of the export certificate numbers will remain the same for the corresponding eCERT transmissions.

In this final rule, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) makes the 2022 annual inflation adjustment to its civil monetary penalties. On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the 2015 Act). Pursuant to the 2015 Act, all agencies must adjust their civil monetary penalties annually and publish the adjustment in the Federal Register. Accordingly, this final rule adjusts the Department's civil monetary penalties for 2021 pursuant to the 2015 Act and Executive Office of the President (EOP) Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance. The new penalties will be effective for penalties assessed after January 11, 2022 whose associated violations occurred after November 2, 2015.