Update on U.S. Customs' cargo manifest strawman proposals

Customs has posted to its website transcripts from the four meetings it held in January 2003 on the development of proposed regulations to provide for the mandatory advance collection of electronic cargo information for all modes of transportation (air, truck, rail and sea).

In addition to receiving written comments on its strawman proposals, Customs has been receiving input from meetings with various trade groups. Customs has already held meetings with various subcommittees of the Treasury Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the U.S. Customs Service (COAC) and several trade groups. COAC has formed several subcommittees who, at the request of the Commissioner of Customs, will be providing Customs with input on the issues surrounding the mandatory advance collection of electronic cargo information for each mode of transportation. The COAC subcommittees are expected to deliver their reports to Customs by mid-March.

In April or May Customs is expected to publish in the Federal Register its proposed rule or rules on the mandatory advance collection by Customs of electronic cargo information for all modes of transportation.

As of February 20, Customs states that it has focused its enforcement efforts on the 15 largest U.S. ports in terms of ocean in-bound traffic. As of that date, Customs had screened 419,654 bills of lading, and had found possible problems with 17,000 of them. As of that date, Customs had also issued fewer than 40 denial of lading messages for violative cargo descriptions.