10+2 Deadline to Coincide with Vessel Departure

U.S. Customs plans to change the filing deadline for advance import data required under the “10+2” rule to make compliance easier for shippers, according to a program official.

About 45 % of Importer Security Filings are being submitted on time, but CBP believes that figure is low because it has been measuring timeliness against the time the first bill of lading is filed by the carrier under the 24-hour advance manifest rule. Many bills of lading are filed more than two days prior to vessel lading, which makes it difficult for importers to compile and file the necessary cargo details on time.

“We’re going to change that so that the ISF filing date will be compared to the vessel departure date,” said Customs and Border Protection’s Steven Silvestri during a presentation to the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America conference in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

The rule allows the border agency to issue penalties of up to $5,000 per violation. Silvestri clarified that the penalty applies to mistakes made in each transmission, not just the final ISF transaction. That means an importer or broker who files a submission with incorrect information and then files an amendment to that submission that also has incorrect information could be subject to $10,000 in penalties -- $5,000 for each transmission.

CBP has received more than 600,000 ISFs since Jan. 26, of which 87 percent have been accepted without errors, while 8.5 percent have been rejected, Silvestri reported.

Submissions have ramped up in recent weeks, with an average of 60,000 filings per week in the past month. The largest cause of errors is duplicate transmissions from impatient filers. Silvestri urged importers or third party filers to wait 20 to 30 minutes after filing to get a conformation from the system before attempting to file again.

CBP will begin sending out progress reports later this month to third party filers, who are supposed to break out the results of each customer and share them, he said.

For more information on Importer Security Filing, please visit the CBP website.

Ross ERP Supports REACH Compliance for Chemical Manufacturers

Enterprise solutions provider CDC Software has released the latest version of Ross ERP, adding functionality to its enterprise resource planning application solution aimed at helping chemical manufacturers comply with recent international regulations.

The new version 6.3.2 of Ross ERP automates, processes and provides documentation that helps chemical companies comply with their obligations under the specific guidelines set forth in the European Union (EU) legislation called Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical Substances (REACH), which became effective in June 2007, and which has recently been supplemented in January 2009.

Ross ERP version 6.3.2 not only helps EU companies maintain compliance with REACH, but it also assists U.S. and other non-EU companies to comply with REACH reporting, CDC said.

More specifically, Ross ERP version 6.3.2 addresses the EU REACH directive that forbids the sale of unapproved products within the European Economic Area (EEA) (EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). Furthermore, REACH requires registration and selective evaluation of more than 30,000 chemical substances and it applies to chemical substances manufactured in, or imported into, the EU for ownership or conversion into finished products.

REACH is designed to help ensure that all parts of the supply chain — from manufacturers to downstream users such as distributors — have the information they need to use certain chemicals safely. This requires several steps, including the communication of information related to the health, safety and environmental properties of these chemicals, as well as required risk and risk management measures up and down the supply chain.

To view the full article, visit Supply&Demand Chain Executive at
http://www.sdcexec.com/web/online/IntegrationERP-News/Ross-ERP-Supports-REACH-Compliance-for-Chemical-Manufacturers/35$11144

10+2 Is In Effect. Are Your Trade Programs Ready?

The requirements of the Importer Security Filing, 10+2, took effect on January 26. The clock is now ticking, and there are only eleven months left in the CBP informed compliance period to achieve full compliance before full enforcement and (significant) monetary penalties take effect.

Under the Importer Security Filing initiative, the electronic transmission of 10 data elements from an importer (or its freight forwarder), and 2 from the vessel, must be executed no later than 24 hours prior to the loading of cargo onto a vessel destined for the US, shifting data transmission to an earlier stage of the supply chain distribution process.

If a company does not comply, it can be fined a minimum of $5,000 for each violation. If you do a lot of importing, that will add up fast.
Are you in compliance? Are you sure? If you don't have good trade visibility, and don't verify the 10+2 submissions filed (on your behalf by your freight forwarder and broker), you might not be ... and you won't know it without good trade visibility. Moreover, you might be risking other non-compliance losses.

For more insight, check out the latest Sourcing Innovation Illumination on Why You Need Trade Visibility.