Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930 allows for the informal entry of articles that have a retail value of $800 or less and are imported by one person in one day. These de minimis shipments are free of duty and taxes and are subject to expedited clearance processing. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is currently conducting a test in which Section 321 shipments may be entered via informal entry type 86 in the Automated Commercial Environment. The test is to all owners, purchasers, consignees, and designated customs brokers of Section 321 shipments, including those subject to partner government agency requirements, imported by all modes of cargo transportation except mail. However, it is not available for goods subject to antidumping or countervailing duties, goods subject to quota, certain tobacco and alcohol products, and goods taxed under the Internal Revenue Code. CBP recently announced that on July 25 it began requiring the estimated date of arrival for all entry type 86 submissions. To enforce this requirement ACE deployed an to cargo release processing under which these submissions must include the reference identifier qualifier code ?DA?in the SE20 record and the value of this identifier must be the estimated date of arrival ( reported as MMDDYY). Failure to provide this information will result in the entry being rejected. CBP also plans to deploy in September additional ACE functionality that will provide a validation to ensure that an appropriate party does not receive Section 321 clearance for more than an aggregate of $800 in shipments on a given day. However, ST&R managing partner Lenny Feldman notes that many customs brokers are questioning how this will be implemented; e.g., which of the EDAs that brokers receive from various data feeds will be most appropriate, and what happens if an EDA is changed or the cargo arrives a day or two earlier or later. Brokers are also concerned about the short time frame for implementation and wondering whether CBP will provide any sort of informed compliance period prior to full enforcement. In related news, CBP? Customs Commercial Operations Advisory Committee recently recommed two changes regarding the entry type 86 test. First, COAC said, CBP should make software changes that will accommodate existing and future partner government agency exceptions. For example, the Food and Drug Administration has identified five categories of regulated products that could be released by CBP without notification to FDA for the purposes of determining entry admissibility if they are valued at or below the de minimis level at that time (cosmetics, dinnerware (including eating and/or cooking utensils), radiation emitting, non-medical devices (e.g. microwaves, televisions, CD players, etc.), biological samples for laboratory testing, and food, excluding ackees, puffer fish, raw clams, raw oysters, raw mussels, and foods packed in air-tight containers inted to be stored at room temperature). Second, COAC urged CBP to enhance the published compliance measurements to include separate categories based on mode of transport (e.g., for truck shipments, indicate northern border vs. southern border). Within these categories, CBP should include information regarding entry type. For non-compliant filings, CBP should indicate the non-compliance reason or category.
