The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) held a quarterly meeting last week, November 14, in Washington, DC and NCBFAA President Geoff Powell and Vice President Amy Magnus were in attendance. The following day, Mr. Powell, as well as the Officers, Board of Directors and Committee Chairs attended another Strategic Planning discussion. On Thursday, November 16, Mr. Powell spoke at the Customs Brokers & International Freight Forwarders Association of Virginia in Norfolk.

Earlier this year, during the quarterly Board of Director's meeting, a decision was reached by our Board of Directors regarding 2018's membership dues. There will be a 5% increase next year due to the increase and need for advocacy over the last year and the rising costs associated to remain in a position in which we can address the challenges and opportunities within our industry. We strive to improve on the value we bring to our members. Here are just a few examples of value we've added to your company and our industry over the last year:

The NCBFAA Customs Committee is looking for a volunteer to be our BKIP Champion. We need BKIP to become widely adopted by our membership and widely recognized in the trade. A champion to head up this effort-either working as a committee of one or with friends and allies--will work to promote understanding of the program with our members, encourage use of the program, and work with the NCBFAA on promotional activities.

CBP's automated Customs Broker Exam administered on October 25 experienced system latency and performance deterioration. Working with its contract exam provider, CBP is identifying and addressing the technical issues that caused these problems. Long term system remediation is underway. The NCBFAA will be discussing the situation with CBP senior management early this week.

NCBFAA President Geoff Powell and NEI Executive Director Kiko Zuniga recently attended the ASAPRA meeting in Cartagena, Colombia. Todd Owen, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Office of Field Operations, addressed the group and then spent some time talking to both on a number of issues. At the 2017 Government Affairs Conference, Alfonso Rojas, the President of ASAPRA, addressed the attendees on the important work of ASAPRA in central, South America and North America. ASAPRA now has been appointed to the Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG) at the World Customs Organization (WCO), an additional path for the NCBFAA to be present and represented at the WCO. Mr. Powell, as well as Rich Roche and Kristine Little, attended the FMC Sunshine meeting. At the meeting, Mr. Powell was able to speak with all the Commissioners and the Chairman on a variety of topics. They thanked Commissioner Dye and Acting Chairman Khouri for their great work in moving this NPRM forward. As Commissioner Dye and Acting Chairman Khouri said, the NPRM is a very positive step in the right direction, but we are not finished with deregulation to bring greater efficiencies to the supply chain.

NCBFAA President Geoff Powell urged Congressional trade leaders to renew GSP before it expires on December 31, 2017. The letter to House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committee leaders pointed out to lawmakers that, if the GSP program is allowed to lapse, "companies will face an estimated $75 million in duties on imports from GSP countries each and every month until the program is renewed!"

On December 9, ACE will become the only CBP-authorized EDI system for generating, transmitting, and updating daily and monthly statements for all entries except reconciliation (type 09) entries and the ACS will be decommissioned for such purposes. However, until reconciliation entries are filed in ACE, statements for reconciliation entries will continue to use ACS.

FDA recently issued a memo addressing Division of West Coast Imports communication and a factsheet providing a status update on the new ITACS functionality. The Division of West Coast Imports new communication directive outlines the correct format that parties must follow when contacting West coast ports through a central e-mail address.

President Geoff Powell announced that NCBFAA has joined the U.S. Global Value Chain Coalition -- a newly formed coalition of companies and trade associations whose mission is to educate policymakers and the public about the American jobs and economic benefits generated by companies in the global supply chain.

The FMC invites comments on its recently released Initial Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2018-2022 (draft Plan). Comments on the Commission's draft Plan must be submitted on or before December 6, 2017.

The NCBFAA Customs Committee and Counsel of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., will continue to monitor and highlight key changes with regards to the May 28 Court of International Trade (CIT) opinion invalidating the IEEPA tariffs, the U.S. government's appeal through the Court of Appeals in the Federal Circuit (CAFC), and what that will mean for our customs broker members.

NCBFAA has opened registration for the 2025 Government Affairs Conference (GAC) to be held at the Grand Hyatt Washington on Sept. 7-9. We urge attendees to register now to take advantage of the special room block and early bird savings!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued draft guidance providing drug manufacturers with recommendations on replacing color additives in drugs.

The HTS Sequencing Toolkit on the NCBFAA Customs Committee Webpage has been updated to include some helpful information about how to use the Treasury Check Verification System (TCVS).

The NCBFAA Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) has provided a roundup of the latest PGA news, including a Withhold Release Order involving a Chinese-flagged fishing vessel, APHIS permitting fresh pineapple from Indonesia, and the continuation of live animal import restrictions from Mexico.

The NCBFAA Customs Committee and Counsel of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., will continue to monitor and highlight key changes with regards to the May 28 Court of International Trade (CIT) opinion invalidating the IEEPA tariffs, the U.S. government's appeal through the Court of Appeals in the Federal Circuit (CAFC), and what that will mean for our customs broker members.

NCBFAA has opened registration for the 2025 Government Affairs Conference (GAC) to be held at the Grand Hyatt Washington on Sept. 7-9. We urge attendees to register now to take advantage of the special room block and early bird savings!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued draft guidance providing drug manufacturers with recommendations on replacing color additives in drugs.

The HTS Sequencing Toolkit on the NCBFAA Customs Committee Webpage has been updated to include some helpful information about how to use the Treasury Check Verification System (TCVS).

The NCBFAA Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) has provided a roundup of the latest PGA news, including a Withhold Release Order involving a Chinese-flagged fishing vessel, APHIS permitting fresh pineapple from Indonesia, and the continuation of live animal import restrictions from Mexico.

The NCBFAA Customs Committee and Counsel of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., will continue to monitor and highlight key changes with regards to the May 28 Court of International Trade (CIT) opinion invalidating the IEEPA tariffs, the U.S. government's appeal through the Court of Appeals in the Federal Circuit (CAFC), and what that will mean for our customs broker members.

NCBFAA has opened registration for the 2025 Government Affairs Conference (GAC) to be held at the Grand Hyatt Washington on Sept. 7-9. We urge attendees to register now to take advantage of the special room block and early bird savings!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued draft guidance providing drug manufacturers with recommendations on replacing color additives in drugs.

The HTS Sequencing Toolkit on the NCBFAA Customs Committee Webpage has been updated to include some helpful information about how to use the Treasury Check Verification System (TCVS).

The NCBFAA Regulatory Agencies Committee (RAC) has provided a roundup of the latest PGA news, including a Withhold Release Order involving a Chinese-flagged fishing vessel, APHIS permitting fresh pineapple from Indonesia, and the continuation of live animal import restrictions from Mexico.