COAC URGES ALTERNATIVES FOR CUSTOMS? TO PROCESS RULINGS

COAC URGES ALTERNATIVES FOR CUSTOMSÆ TO PROCESS RULINGS    At a meeting of the Treasury Committee on Commercial Operations of the U.S. Customs Service (COAC) in Washington Friday, industry members continued to urge the agency to consider farming out some of its ruling process to third parties.
   Customs’ Office of Regulations & Rulings is under pressure by the import industry to speed up the release on rulings. These rulings are needed to help importers stay compliant with Customs rules in areas such as classification and valuation.
   Similarly, the General Accounting Office released a report on Customs’ Office of Regulations & Rulings, which criticized the agency’s management system and how it tracked the progress of rulings.
   The agency has managed to release non-controversial rulings in less than 30 days, but it’s still taking too long to release the more complicated rulings, industry officials said. Customs said most of the delays were caused by insufficient staffing levels.
   “While that’s a factor here, our feeling has been historically that staffing alone doesn’t solve the problem,” said Gilbert Lee Sandler, attorney for Miami-based law firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, and a member of COAC.
   “We propose that importers should be able to use counsel of their choice to prepare rulings. Customs would have 30 days to approve or reject these rulings … Customs could then use its resources in a manner that’s more efficient.”
   Stu Seidel, assistant commissioner of Customs’ Office of Regulations & Rulings, said changes have been made to better manage the time and resources of its staff in Washington and New York.
   “We’ve been able to recruit attorneys with international trade backgrounds who can hit the ground running. Some of them even have customs broker licenses,” Seidel said. “This reduces the learning curve tremendously. We should see the benefits in six months.”
   Customs OR&R promised to review COAC’s proposal and consider further changes to its operations.