In a Federal Register Notice (FRN) to be published on December 20, 2016 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released an interim rule establishing Centers of Excellence and Expertise (Centers) as a permanent part of CBP with added trade functions.
This interim rule ends the test CBP established to broaden the authority of the Centers and transfer part of the decision making from the Port Directors to Center Directors. The FRN provides clarification on the authorities of the Centers and changes that will be made, including:
- “Defining the Centers and the Center Directors
- Amending the definition for port directors to distinguish their functions from Center directors
- Identifying Center management offices
- Explaining the process by which importers will be assigned to Centers
- Providing the importer with an appeals process for its Center”
This interim rule will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.
The FRN can be accessed at:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-29719.pdf
