COAC Subcommittees Provide Updates on Work Involving Isotopic Testing, FTZ Regulations

During this week's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) quarterly meeting on Sept. 18, the group's subcommittees offered updates on their activities between June, when COAC last met (see 2406270054), and September.

Below are just a few highlights; COAC has more updates and recommendations available on CBP’s website (see 2409180027):

Intelligent Enforcement Subcommittee

• The Forced Labor working group is engaging in “meaningful discussion” with CBP on isotopic testing requirements. According to the working group’s issue paper, COAC members have provided feedback on an initial draft of CBP’s isotopic testing guide that would help in the development of outreach materials. CBP is also receiving feedback from various laboratories’ standards and is engaging with stakeholders on new and emerging technologies to glean insights and lessons about forced labor risk management, the working group said in the paper. In addition to the isotopic testing guide, CBP is also gearing up new laboratories in Savannah, Georgia, Los Angeles and New York to focus on isotopic testing. The laboratories could launch sometime in late FY2024 to early FY2025.
• The Forced Labor working group said CBP is working on an improved website that will replace the current in September, and it continues the new forced labor chatbot that launched in March to respond to labor and UFLPA inquiries.
• CBP is also in the process of developing a new centralized public website portal to submit forced labor allegations, requests for Withhold Release Order (WRO)/Finding modifications, UFLPA exception reviews, the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act exception reviews, UFLPA applicability reviews, and WRO admissibility reviews, the Forced Labor working group said. The portal, which has a scheduled deployment date of late FY2024, will increase efficiency and reduce CBP’s and the public’s burden of collection.

Secure Trade Lanes Subcommittee

• According to the Pipeline working group’s issue paper, the working group has established that a combination of a GIS-based automated ledger, decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs), as jointly developed by CBP and industry during the group’s 2019-2022 hiatus, has the potential to resolve substantially all outstanding pre-arrival, in-bond, and USMCA traceability issues.
• The Pipeline working group also said in its issue paper that CBP is finalizing its plan for a pipeline-modernization NCAP pilot for submission to the Office of Management and Budget for a Paperwork Reduction Act compliance review and creation of associated Federal Register notices. CBP Cargo and Conveyance Security personnel have developed Standard Operating Procedures for field implementation of the software.
• The Foreign-Trade Zone/Warehouse working group issued one recommendation, which is for CBP to establish new Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) entity type(s) specific to the needs of Foreign-Trade Zones and Bonded Warehouses.
• The FTZ/Warehouse working group is also conducting with CBP a “line-by-line walk through” of Part 146, which governs Foreign Trade Zone regulations, taking into account feedback from industry experts, CBP and the trade, the working group said at the meeting. The broader goal is to propose one or more regulations that would modernize the Foreign-Trade Zone regulations. After the working group wraps up its review of Part 146, it plans to work on the FTZ handbook, warehouse regulations and the bonded warehouse book.
• In response to FTZ/Warehouse working group’s update, one commenter during the public comment period said Sept. 18, “I applaud the FTZ/Bonded Warehouse working group on their recommendation. I will only ask that FTZ and bonded warehouse entities in C-TPAT be open all importers, and not limited to U.S. and Canada companies, so all uses of the FTZ and bonded warehouses have the opportunity to participate in the program.” No other comments were received on that working group’s update.