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ISA Director Joseph M. Rees Named Keynote Speaker at April 6 Export Import Compliance ConferenceThe Export Import Compliance Conference, to be held on April 6 at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Westin Hotel, has confirmed that Joseph M. Rees, the Director of the Importer Self-Assessment (ISA) Program for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will deliver the keynote address. Director Rees will explore the ISA Program and will be entertaining questions during his luncheon address. ISA is a voluntary program for importers. Importers must meet certain minimum standards regarding customs and import compliance, must be C-TPAT certified, and must perform periodic self-testing as part of their ongoing responsibilities. Some importers apply for ISA for many of its benefits, including the ability to avoid a Focused Assessment. A Focused Assessment is a comprehensive importer audit. Unlike an ISA, a Focused Assessment is not voluntary. A F According to Oscar Gonzalez, GRVR attorney, “There are a great many misperceptions about ISA, the benefits the program offers, and how best to qualify. Some consultants and law firms, regardless of size, do not have the expertise that clients require when applying for ISA. They need the right firm to shepherd them through the application and certification process. We are glad that Director Rees will be providing the latest information on this important program.” The conference will be held at the Westin DFW Airport in Irving, Texas and will cover the most important and current compliance issues for both imports and exports. Both advanced trade compliance professionals and beginners will benefit from the program. There will be a game show at the end of the day to reinforce the day’s lessons and to award an iPod. Corporate sponsors include Mallory Alexander International Logistics, PSI Software, Roanoke Trade, and the Export Import Law Institute. Interested exhibitors and sponsors may call Ruth Rodriguez, Conference Chair, at 214.720.3890 or email her at ruthr@exportimportlaw.com. An early bird discount of $50 is available if you register before March 1, 2006. Registration is $149 per person before March 1 and $199 per person thereafter. The phone number to the Westin DFW Airport is 972.929.4500. Click here to register. Questions: 214.720.7720 or info@exportimportlaw.com. Ask The Attorney - C-TPAT and Business Partners Q: We don’t understand the C-TPAT criteria in regards to business partners. We are a US manufacturer that imports merchandise. We are incorporated. We do not have “business partners." How do we deal with this issue in our Security Profile? A: "Business partners" for C-TPAT purposes is different from the common use of that term. In the C-TPAT context, it does not refer to the legal relationship between persons or companies who are contractually bound as principals in the partnership. Law firms, for example, are commonly formed as partnerships. A business partner under C-TPAT has a much broader definition and includes all companies and individuals who enable you to import your merchandise. Thus, for C-TPAT purposes, you do have business partners. "Business partners" are those service providers -- those companies and individuals --with whom you contract within your supply chain that help bring in imported merchandise. They are your suppliers of goods and services. If you do not contract with them directly, they are not your service providers. If they do not help bring in imported merchandise, they are not service providers that C-TPAT is interested in. C-TPAT expects that you manage your business partners to avoid security gaps in the supply chain. At the very least, this means that you must inform your business partners about C-TPAT and develop policies for evaluating and choosing service providers. You should also have procedures to evaluate and audit business partners for supply chain security compliance. CBP Clarifies Quick Response Audits Policy Under ISA If you are an importer that is accepted into ISA, your company will receive concrete benefits and advantages that other companies can only dream about, including special voluntary disclosure protections and no comprehensive audits. But CBP has always reserved the right to do narrowly focused audits of ISA certified companies. CBP recently clarified its policy:
The following do not have to be entered (go through the formal entry process):
Source: General Note 3(e) Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. Census Mandatory AES Filing Is Here……Almost We know, we know. The Census Bureau seems to live by the “we can’t wait to procrastinate” motto when it comes to issuing its long-delayed regulation requiring exporters to electronically file export information. But Census now seems committed to doing just that in the next few days/weeks. First, it is promising to issue the final regulations in the first quarter of 2006 (tick tock, tick tock) and it is holding seminars across the country to introduce the trade community to the new regulations. Just to jar your memory, this is what the new regulations will do (we are assuming that the final regulations will substantially be the same as those initial regulations that Census issued last year). Among the many other things the new proposals would do, it would eliminate Shippers Export Declaration or SED as a term of art. This is a logical step since the paper SED is about to be extinct and all export information must now be filed electronically using the Automated Export System (AES). The electronic information itself will be called the Electronic Export Information or EEI. While doing away with the paper SED should come as no surprise and Census has provided the trade community more than ample opportunity to adjust to this reality, many companies may still be caught with their compliance pants down by the cost of non-compliance. You say you’ve never seen Census enforce its regulations? Well, now the Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Export Enforcement ("OEE") and CBP’s Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") will be investigating and enforcing the new penalty provisions. Under the old FTSR, Census could fine you only $10,000 for civil violations. Period. Census cannot pile on the fines. That is about to change. For example, just filing your EEI late will subject you to a $1,000 fine per day up to $10,000. If you file false or misleading information, your penalty will be an additional $10,000 per violation. A volume exporter would quickly see fines spiral up to the millions of dollars. Of course, criminal exposure is the other jaw of this enforcement vise. A criminal violator risks up to 5 years in jail. Census will have the power to permanently deprive you of the merchandise or cargo at issue through forfeiture. If all this is not scary enough, these new penalties are in addition to the penalties that OEE or other agencies may dole out to violators. The new regulations, along with other export and customs compliance topics, will be covered in the Export Import Compliance Conference 2006.
President Bush intends to nominate W. Ralph Basham, the head of the Secret Service, to become commissioner for customs and border protection, one of the most prominent jobs at the Department of Homeland Security, the department said. In the post, Mr. Basham would oversee more than 41,000 employees who patrol the nation's borders, inspect imported cargo and screen foreigners arriving at the nation's airports, seaports and land border posts. The agency also has more than 250 aircraft, the largest law enforcement air force in the world. Mr. Basham, a native of Owensboro, Ky., has worked at the Secret Service since 1970, serving the last three years as its director. His nomination to replace Robert C. Bonner, who retired last year, would have to be confirmed by the Senate. Click here to read the entire article.
In the last week, Google has faced sharp criticism for its decision to censor search results in China. But it's not the only tech company whose products serve the ends of the Chinese government. Yahoo! turned in a Chinese journalist. Cisco routers help the state monitor Internet traffic and block sites they don't approve of. Oracle's databases can potentially keep tabs on China's citizens. Juniper Networks provides firewall applications. Intel and Motorola sell semiconductors that power the government's computers. Pretty much every tech company is complicit in helping the Chinese government repress its citizenry. The difference is that Google prides itselfs on offering "unbiased, accurate and free access to information." During a panel discussion at Davos, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that Google tries its best to "Do No Evil," but the company must follow a nation's laws and customs. On the “evil scale," the company calculated it was less evil to censor than to deprive the Chinese of its search engine. (That led Bill Gates to crack that maybe Google's motto should be "do less evil.") We can wring our hands all we want, but companies, which are beholden to their shareholders, will inevitably enter the already huge, still-growing Chinese market. Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, and Google dodge the implications of this business decision by claiming their products are politically neutral. In fact, these companies are actively perpetuating and enhancing government repression. Click here to read the rest of this article.
The paradox about the current state of the American economy is that every day we read stories about factories being closed, manufacturing jobs moving to China, stagnant wage growth for workers, and yet, the economy as a whole keeps chugging along. One part of the explanation is that the distribution of wealth is all screwed up -- richer Americans are grabbing a bigger chunk of the gains from participating in the global economy than are poorer Americans. But it's not the whole explanation, because average-income Americans are still consuming up a storm, despite the hit the middle class seems to be taking. The answer to the paradox is funny money, something that Goldilocks might consider, if she was wise, a little too hot to handle. Let's go now to some downbeat prognosticators at Morgan Stanley, who offer up a pretty useful roundup of the views of their economists for all to read. They're not so high on the three bears. But the money quote, for me was this: "First, the victims of globalization -- unskilled workers in high-income countries -- have been defending their lifestyles with debt, but may not be able to do so in 2006 due to higher interest rates and the surfacing credit problems in this segment. Globalization has appeared a win-win for everyone so far. This is just a perception. Stagnant income growth among unskilled workers in high-income economies is a telltale sign. This should not be surprising, as unskilled workers in rich economies now compete against workers in developing economies that are muscling their way into the global economy." "The global economy has paid no price for this income shortfall, because financial innovations have provided this population segment with debt to defend their lifestyle." Click here to read the rest of this article. Free Webinar: Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures - Surviving and Thriving When Things Go Wrong With Customs Free Power Lunch: Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures - Surviving and Thriving When Things Go Wrong With Customs Fines, Penalties, Forfeitures Power Lunch Export Import Conference 2006, Irving, Texas – Tuesday, April 6 Export Import Conference, Tuesday, April 11, 2006, Laredo, Texas Customs Broker Exam Preparation Course - Online and personal workshops -- all for the same bring. Early Bird Registration 50% off before February 15, 2006. This is the best course anywhere and it guarantees that you pass. Click here for more information. Export Import Law Institute Online Courses - C-TPAT, Managing and Hiring Customs Brokers, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Deemed Export Rule, and the Customs Broker Exam Preparation Course are offered 24/7. Everyone loves our courses. We can create online courses to fit your company's specific needs. Your company can outsource all its compliance training to EILI. For more information, click here. Gonzalez Rolon Valdespino & Rodriguez, LLC, Attorneys Mailing Address: Phone: 214.720.7720 Fax: 214.720.6076 Toll-Free: 800.256.2013 Dallas • Houston • San Antonio • Mexico City Disclaimer You won’t find any legal advice anywhere in this newsletter, on our website, or in any course or public lesson we offer. If you would like legal advice, you need to ask your attorney. GRVR Attorneys provide legal advice only to existing clients in a confidential and private setting, not in public (i.e., not in a newsletter). If you are looking to hire an international trade attorney, we would love to hear from you. The GRVR Attorney responsible for the contents of this newsletter is Oscar Gonzalez. He can be reached at 214.720.3894 or oscarg@exportimportlaw.com. © 2006 Gonzalez Rolon Valdespino & Rodriguez, Attorneys. All Rights Reserved. |
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ocused Assessment lasts many months and sometimes years, and can result in huge fines, penalties, and intensive and prolonged scrutiny by a team of CBP auditors. All major importers are targets for a Focused Assessment unless they are in the ISA program. It is not possible to apply for ISA if an importer is not already C-TPAT certified or if a company cannot truthfully answer “yes” to all the questions in the ISA questionnaire and provide supporting documents.
This month's articles
Joe Rees Keynotes Major Conference
C-TPAT Business Partners
ISA Quick Response Audits
Did You Know?
Census Mandatory Electronic Filing
News Roundup
Compliance Calendar
Contacting GRVR Attorneys
February 2006