January 29, 2003
     

The following article is excerpted from the 24 January on-line edition of “The Journal of Commerce”.  Further information about US Customs initiatives is available on their web site, http://www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/home.xml; a link to this site is available from the CSCB web site, in the “Links” directory.

The Customs Service will begin enforcing the "most egregious" violations of the 24-hour rule on Feb. 2, and will focus on other problems in the future, according to John Considine, director of cargo verification.

That means Customs will begin issuing "no load" orders to carriers for cargo data that fails to accurately describe cargo, and the carrier made no apparent effort to comply with the regulation.

At the same time, Customs is preparing new examples of acceptable cargo descriptions to help carriers and shippers. Considine and Charles Bartoldus, director of border targeting and analysis, made the announcements during a meeting Thursday to discuss new electronic cargo-reporting rules that will go into effect Oct. 1.

An accurate description of the cargo is one of the key data elements that Customs is requiring carriers and non-vessel-operating common carriers to transmit to Customs 24 hours before a container goes aboard a U.S. bound ship at a foreign port.

Customs will enforce the order by denying carriers permission to unload the non-compliant container in the U.S. Customs also may levy penalties for non-compliance.

Bartoldus said that leaving the cargo description blank - a common problem - is "totally unacceptable," and will prompt a no-load message to the carrier not to load a container.

He said descriptions such as "freight all kinds," and "consolidated cargo," are unacceptable. Customs also is seeing "garbage" cargo descriptions, like the single word, "the," or numbers or punctuation characters.

"This is easy - on Feb. 2, those are unacceptable," he said. On the other hand, Bartoldus said that the words "said to contain" are prohibited in the rule, but an acceptable manifest description may begin "shipper's load and count" (SLAC), followed by a verbal description of the lading.

Customs also is easing some of its most strict descriptions. A new chart of acceptable cargo descriptions will be posted on the Customs Web site among the "frequently asked questions" about the 24-hour rule….

Originally Customs said that a description like "wearing apparel" was too vague, that cargo descriptions had to say "men's shirts," or "ladies blouses." Under the new guidelines, an acceptable cargo description is "clothing."
Shippers and carriers also may use Harmonized Tariff System code numbers.

Bartoldus said that Customs will provide carriers with "informed compliance" to improve the descriptions on cargo manifests in cases where descriptions are almost-acceptable….

Customs also is finding unacceptable identification of shipper and consignee, Bartoldus said, but the agency will not begin enforcement of those violations on Feb. 2. He said some carriers have had a 60 percent discrepancy rate in describing the shipper.

He said that shippers are commonly identified as an NVOCC, bank, or freight forwarder.

"That does not work for us, but we understand that's a common practice," Bartoldus said. "We need more dialogue with you."

Bartoldus emphasized that Customs intends to make denial of entry for a non-compliant container a rare event. "We don't envision sending out 5,000 no-load messages on Feb. 2," he said.