The House Committee on Ways and Means and U.S. Customs have already began reviewing alternatives to revamp the collection of the Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) in order to comply with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). TPP rules prevent the MPF from being assessed on an ad-valorem basis. Currently, the MPF rate is 0.3464% with a minimum… Read more »
CBP Delays Portions of ACE Implementation
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has just announced that the mandatory date for the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) implementation has been delayed depending on the entry type and the involvement of Partner Government Agencies (PGA). After receiving numerous recommendations from industry groups including the National Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA)… Read more »
Container weight certification coming July 1, 2016.
(The Mayview Maersk, photo credit Flickr user kees torn, CC BY 2.0) The United Nations Safety of Life at Sea Convention, or SOLAS, approved a regulation requiring all containers shipped on board a vessel to have their weight certified beginning on July 1, 2016. There are three reasons that container weighing not only became an… Read more »
TPP draft text approved and released; now goes to Congress for debate.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement among 12 nations including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam was concluded by the TPP trade ministers on October 5, 2015.. The contents of the agreement had been kept secret throughout the years of negotiations, but its full text… Read more »
Looking ahead to 2016: The Panama Canal.
With offices in Miami, Florida, we are keenly interested in the progress of the Panama Canal’s third set of locks. The third set of locks, delayed by cost overruns, financing and a few small leaks, look to be opening for business in Q2 of 2016. It is no secret that carriers are seeking economies of… Read more »
