New CBP rule will require filing 12 new advance data elementsBy Peter A. Buxbaum, AJOTUS Customs and Border Protection wasted no time starting the new year off with a bang. On January 2, the agency issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding the filing of additional elements of advance trade data. The proposed rule is commonly referred to as the 10 + 2 program because, under the proposal, importers will have to file ten data sets at least 24 hours prior to the foreign loading of cargo and carriers will have to file an additional two data sets. The proposed rule would require importers to provide descriptive and identifying information for each shipment, including the identity and location of the manufacturer, seller, and buyer; the eventual destination; the container stuffing location and the stuffer’s identity; the identities of the importer of record and the consignee; the country of origin of the goods; and the Commodity Harmonized Tariff Schedule number. These provisions are applicable primarily to intermediaries. All carriers, except for ships exclusively carrying bulk cargo, will be required to submit a vessel stow plan not later than 48 hours after departure from the last foreign port. Carriers bringing containerized cargo into a US port that create or collect container status messages will be required to submit those CSMs no later than 24 hours after the message is entered into the carrier’s system. Currently, CBP relies on carrier manifest information to perform advance targeting prior to vessel loading. Other CBP cargo security efforts include the 24-hour Manifest Rule, the Container Security Initiative, the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), the Automated Targeting System, and the Secure Freight Initiative. CBP has concluded that more complete advance shipment data would produce more accurate and effective cargo risk assessments, according to CBP Commissioner W. Ralph Basham. “The security filing will improve CBP’s ability to target high-risk cargo by identifying actual cargo movements and improving the accuracy of cargo descriptions,” he said. “It will also improve our ability to facilitate lawful international trade by identifying low-risk shipments much earlier in the supply chain.” CBP’s Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) provided input to the drafting of the rule. Implementation of the new advanced data requirements “will be the most complicated challenge CBP will face this year,” said Christopher Koch, executive director of the World Shipping Council, and a COAC member. COAC’s recommendations with respect to the 10 + 2 rule primarily involved refinements of CBP’s proposals and requests for clarifications where the requirements were unclear. COAC suggested, for example, allowing information with respect to the seller or supplier when the actual manufacturer is not known. COAC also suggested that non-U.S. based freight forwarders be allowed to qualify to provide security filings, that a process be developed to amend filings, and that CBP provide instructions on how to handle situations where all necessary data elements are not available 24 hours prior to loading. CBP is expected to take a phased approach to the enforcement of the new rule, once it comes on the books, much as it did for the 24-hour manifest rule, according to Kevin Gavin, vice president for supply chain management at IES, Ltd., a developer of transportation industry software based in Midland Park, NJ. “CBP has always been pretty good about it,” he said. “When they come out with a rule they say, ‘This is what we are going to make you, but if violate the rule, we’re not going to enforce it yet.’ Then they slowly tighten the screw.” The data elements that would be required under the proposed rule could prove sensitive for many businesses, Gavin contended. “If the data gets into an untrusted person’s hand, it could be damaging to business,” he said. “If you’re an importer in the United States, you will have to provide the rating informa