The Automated Export System has been updated to accept changes in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule from Presidential Proclamation 9980, which was published Jan. 29 and took effect Feb. 8, the Census Bureau said in an emailed alert. “AES will accept shipments with outdated codes during a grace period for 30 days beyond the expiration date. Reporting an outdated code after the 30-day grace period will result in a fatal error,” Census said. “The ACE AESDirect program has been updated and will accept shipments with outdated codes during the grace period.” The current list of HTS codes not valid for AES is available on the Census website, the agency said.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is lowering its fees for rice inspection services, it said in a notice. The final rule decreases fees across the board by 20 percent for fiscal year 2020, and by another 20 percent for FY21. Export port services will fall to $0.059 per hundredweight in the first year, and to $0.047 in the second, which begins Oct. 1, 2020. The new fees are applicable as of Jan. 1, 2020.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is extending for one more year the temporary listing of cyclopentyl fentanyl, isobutyryl fentanyl, pharmacologist fentanyl, portamento fentanyl, and valeryl fentanyl in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, it said. The synthetic opioids, first temporarily listed in 2018 (see 1801310009), will now remain listed in schedule I until Feb. 2, 2021. DEA also issued a proposed rule to permanently list these synthetic opioids in schedule I, with comments due March 2. Substances may only be temporarily listed under the CSA for three years.
The Drug Enforcement Administration permanently placed the synthetic cannabinoids 5F-ADB, 5F-AMB, 5FAPINACA, ADB-FUBINACA, MDMB-CHMICA and MDMB-FUBINACA into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, in a final rule. The substances had already been temporarily listed in Schedule I since 2017 (see 1904050027). The final order takes effect Jan. 24.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is removing the opioid antagonist 6-beta-naltrexol from schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act, it said in a final rule. Effective Jan. 24, DEA is removing “regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to controlled substances, including those specific to schedule II controlled substances, on persons who handle (manufacture, distribute, reverse distribute, dispense, conduct research, import, export, or conduct chemical analysis) or propose to handle” 6-beta-naltrexol, it said.
The Drug Enforcement Administration placed the neurosteroid brexanolone into Schedule IV of the Controlled Substances Act, it said. The final rule confirms an interim regulation issued in June that subjected brexanolone to new registration, labeling, recordkeeping, and import and export requirements.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is issuing a final rule amending its regulations on its Market Access Program to eliminate the five-year limit on participation by branded products. Other updates in the final rule will bring the operation of the export promotion program “into conformance with the requirements in the Uniform Guidance,” USDA said. “Additional changes, such as the flexibility to announce program funding opportunities on the Grants.gov portal and edits to bring more consistency between the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program, are desirable to bring the administration of the program into line with current best practices in Federal grant-making.” The final rule takes effect Jan. 13.
CBP plans to begin registration for the 2020 Trade Symposium on Jan. 9, it said in a tweet. The symposium is scheduled for March 10-11 in Anaheim, California. “The agenda, venue details, and registration link are coming soon,” it said.
Starting Jan. 1, “'X - No Unit Required' is not an acceptable Unit of Measure in the Automated Export System for most commodity classification codes,” the Census Bureau said in a Dec. 31 email. “There will be no grace period for this change.,” it said. The agency said in the email that “the Schedule B, Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), and HTS Codes That Are Not Valid for AES tables have been updated to accept the changes to the January 1, 2020 codes.”
The Government Accountability Office and the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General each released a report on Dec. 17 that noted various issues within CBP's drawback program. The GAO's report suggested that CBP work to flag excessive export submissions and “establish a reliable system of record for proof of export,” among other things. The DHS IG report found that CBP “lacked appropriate documentation retention periods to ensure importers and claimants maintained support for drawback transactions” and didn't scrutinize prior drawback claims enough for claimants during 2011 to 2018.