Maher Terminals & PNCT will be CLOSED on Friday, 11/11/16 (Veteran's Day)
Port Truck Gate Schedule for Veterans Day 2016 - PierPass
Terminals at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have announced their schedules for the Veterans Day holiday and the following weekend of Friday, November 11, through Sunday, November 13. The schedule is posted below, and a PDF of the schedule can be downloaded at http://www.pierpass.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/VeteransDay_2016_2.pdf.
Please continue to monitor the websites of individual terminals for updates.
Duty Savings Opportunity for Leather Handbag Importers - Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP
Importers of leather handbags may have the opportunity to reduce their duty rate on some styles by more than half by reclassifying their products.
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule distinguishes between leather handbags (dutiable at a rate of 9% ad valorem) and tote bags (4.5% ad valorem). U.S. Customs has outlined certain distinguishing criteria between the two types of bags, such as carrying capacity and size. A bag may meet the tote bag criteria even if it still enjoys other traditional handbag features like shoulder straps, outside pockets and closures. If the tote criteria are satisfied, a U.S. importer is eligible not only for duty savings on future shipments, but also duty refunds on past shipments. Please contact Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP
CBP Seizes Shipment of Counterfeit WD-40 in Puerto Rico - U.S. Customs & Border Protection
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico— U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) San Juan Area Port seized a shipment containing nearly 1,500 cans of counterfeit WD-40 brand lubricant sent from China.
On Oct. 17, CBP officers inspected merchandise consisting of 30 boxes of product declared as an “anti-rust lubricant.” Further examination revealed possible infringement to a registered trademark.
CBP contacted the manufacturer and trademark owner who confirmed the intellectual property rights (IPR) violation. The estimated Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of the shipment is nearly $8,000.
“Our dedicated CBP Officers, Import Specialists, Paralegal Specialists and Seized Property Specialists continue to be vigilant to detect and seize products that can impact the health and safety of the American public,” said Edward Ryan, Assistant Director of Trade for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
CBP works with IP rights holders to accurately detect and seize fraudulent products.
“WD-40 Company is very pleased to know that CBP is actively protecting the interests of rights holders as well as the public from infringing products such as these,” stated Richard Clampitt, General Counsel at WD-40 Company in San Diego, California. “The work of CBP and strong IPR laws in the U.S. provide assurance to U.S. consumers that counterfeit WD-40 brand products are rarely found in our markets.”
CBP protects businesses and consumers every day through an aggressive IPR enforcement program. CBP targets and seizes imports of counterfeit and pirated goods, and enforces exclusion orders on patent infringing and other IPR goods.
If you have information about counterfeit merchandise being illegally imported into the United States, CBP encourages the public to submit an e-Allegation. The e-Allegation provides a means for the public to anonymously report to CBP any suspected violations of trade laws or regulations related to the importation of goods into the U.S.
These types of violations include misclassification of merchandise, false country of origin markings, health and safety issues, valuation issues, and intellectual property rights.
All USITC websites will be unavailable at 1:00 pm Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, for a security upgrade - United States International Trade Commission
The USITC website and all web-based applications, including EDIS, HTS Search, MTBPS, and DataWeb, will be unavailable starting at 1:00 pm ET on Friday, November, 11, 2016 to conduct a security upgrade to the USITC Internet infrastructure. The length of the outage is not expected to be long but is somewhat uncertain and could last as long as 24 hours. Please check back intermittently on system availability and plan your activities accordingly.
NYSA and Port Partners Develop Simulation Center, First of its Kind in the Country - Port of Authority of NY/NJ
Under a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD), The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will make investments to improve the barge program that transports containers between terminals in New York and New Jersey.
The grant, obtained with the assistance of New York and New Jersey’s Congressional delegation, will increase the barge system’s cost-effectiveness and reliability for shippers. These factors, in turn, will help the Port Authority, its terminal operators and ocean carriers to grow the existing barge program, which last year moved 35,000 containers, resulted in 60,000 fewer trucks on the region’s roadways, and eliminated 1,600 tons of CO2.
But the MARAD grant also helps create the New York Harbor Crane Operators Training Center (COTC), the first of its kind in the country.
The COTC’s three state-of-the-art simulators will help train members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) to operate the newest generation of ship-to-shore and yard cranes, thus optimizing the loading and discharge of container barges. The award of $492,480 from the MARAD grant will be matched by $328,320 committed by both the New York Shipping Association (NYSA) and Port Newark Container Terminal, plus an in-kind contribution of a simulator from the NYSA.
The full grant will also support:
•Enhancing the fender system at Berth 6 in Port Newark, specifically the Red Hook Barge Terminal, to help protect both Port Authority-owned barges and the berths from damage during docking and undocking operations. The MARAD grant award of $157,500 will be matched by $192,500 from the Port Authority.
•The purchase of two new high-tech machines to augment existing container handling equipment at Red Hook Container Terminal. The MARAD grant award of $982,316 will be matched with $327,439 from Red Hook Container Terminal.
United States, Sweden Sign Agreement to Open Preclearance Facility at Stockholm Arlanda Airport - U.S. Customs & Border protection
Stockholm Arlanda Airport submitted letter of interest to add Preclearance operations during first Preclearance open season in 2014
WASHINGTON—The United States and Sweden signed an agreement today in Stockholm to implement U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Preclearance operations at Stockholm Arlanda Airport.
U.S. Ambassador Azita Raji signed on behalf of the United States and Minister of Home Affairs Anders Ygeman signed on behalf of Sweden. With Preclearance, travelers undergo CBP immigration, customs, and agriculture inspections before boarding a flight to the United States at a foreign airport rather than upon arrival in the U.S. More than 1,700 flights from Arlanda Airport carrying nearly 400,000 travelers flew to the United States last year.
“Today marks an important step in taking the already strong economic and security partnership between the United States and Sweden to the next level. This agreement will lead to the establishment of a Preclearance facility at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, making it among the first European airports to have such a facility,” said Ambassador Raji. “It will allow travelers to clear U.S. customs and immigration before stepping on board the aircraft, thereby reducing wait times, facilitating quicker connections to U.S. domestic flights, and resulting in air carriers to fly direct to more U.S. destinations.”
“The agreement is truly breaking new ground in Sweden. We foresee many benefits with a Preclearance location at Arlanda Airport,” said Minister of Home Affairs Ygeman. “Smoother border crossings will make travelling to the U.S. easier for all air passengers. We expect benefits for the trade between the United States and Sweden.”
“This agreement brings our two countries one step closer to enhancing the travel experience for those who travel to the U.S. from Stockholm each year,” said CBP Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske. “We are excited to continue this process with Sweden and look forward to beginning Preclearance operations as early as 2019.”
The agreement must now be brought into force after the Governments have completed all necessary internal procedures. This process is expected to take between 12 and 18 months. Preclearance operations may begin at Stockholm Arlanda Airport as early as 2019.
Preclearance benefits travelers, host airports, and air carriers in addition to being a strong economic opportunity for both the host country and the United States. Preclearance has the potential to increase capacity and growth opportunities for airports and air carriers in the host country and the United States, while improving the traveler experience. For travelers, Preclearance leads to faster connections and the ability to exit the airport immediately upon landing the United States. Preclearance also allows law enforcement to identify potential threats at the earliest opportunity.
Stockholm Arlanda Airport submitted a letter of interest to add Preclearance operations during the first Preclearance open season in 2014. In May 2015, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson identified the airport as a prioritized Preclearance location.
CBP also continues to engage with several of the host governments of other prioritized locations, which included: Brussels Airport, Belgium; Punta Cana Airport, Dominican Republic; Narita International Airport, Japan; Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Netherlands; Oslo Airport, Norway; Madrid-Barajas Airport, Spain; Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Turkey; and London Heathrow Airport and Manchester Airport, United Kingdom.
Preclearance is the process by which CBP officers stationed abroad inspect and make admissibility decisions about passengers and their accompanying goods or baggage heading to the United States before they leave a foreign port. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requires that passenger and accessible property screening at a foreign Preclearance airport conforms to U.S. aviation security screening standards in order for the U.S.-bound aircraft to disembark passengers at a domestic U.S. air terminal without needing to be rescreened. CBP officers retain the authority to inspect passengers and their accompanying goods or baggage after arriving in the United States.
Preclearance operations began in 1952 at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Today, CBP has more than 600 law enforcement officers and agriculture specialists stationed at 15 air Preclearance locations in 6 countries: Aruba; Freeport and Nassau, the Bahamas; Bermuda; Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Winnipeg, Canada; Dublin and Shannon, Ireland; and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Last year, CBP cleared more than 18 million passengers through these Preclearance locations.
Expanding Preclearance is one of the steps the Administration has taken to help accelerate the growth of the American travel and tourism industry, while enforcing the highest level of security.
Maersk Line, Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Partner to Measure, Reduce Air Pollution from Ships - Port of Los Angeles
SAN PEDRO, Calif. – Nov. 7, 2016 – Shipping company Maersk Line and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are partnering to measure the environmental benefits of a $125 million upgrade for 12 Maersk container ships. This will involve the installation of high-tech equipment to track vessel emissions and energy efficiency over the next three years, enabling more transparency and ultimately reducing the environmental impact of vessels calling at the San Pedro Bay port complex.
The two ports are contributing a combined $1 million to real-time tracking systems that represent an industry leading application to pinpoint vessel emissions while ships are at sea and at berth. Unprecedented in its scope and scale, the three-year data collection and analysis project, called “The Connected Vessel Programme”, builds on the $125 million Maersk Line has invested in its “radical retrofit” program to reduce fuel consumption and increase the capacity of the vessels that regularly call at the San Pedro Bay ports.
“Maersk Line’s extraordinary commitment to cleaner, more efficient vessel operations represents a quantum leap in the environmental progress of our entire industry,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “We applaud Maersk Line for its leadership and innovation, and we are eager to do our part to advance fundamental change that will result in cleaner air for our surrounding communities and around the world.”
“This project is a vivid example of the deep commitment to environmental sustainability that we have grown to expect from our goods movement partners, as we all work together to create a healthier planet,” said Port of Long Beach Interim CEO Duane Kenagy. “We’re pleased to be a part of this project, and we hope it will serve as a model to encourage even more progress and creativity in emissions reductions from ocean-going vessels.”
The project will continuously record how much fuel each engine uses in conjunction with speed, engine power, weather and other operational variables through use of mass flow meters and an interface to the Integrated Control System (ICS) on-board to capture key performance data. Information will be uploaded to Maersk Line servers via satellite, and each ship will be able to communicate in real-time with Maersk Line’s Global Vessel Performance Centre (GVPC) to increase operational efficiency.
“This is the equivalent of strapping a Fitbit onto a large container ship,” said Dr. Lee Kindberg, Director of Environment and Sustainability for Maersk Line, a global ocean transportation company and a division of the Maersk Group. “We’ll be tracking vessel performance and emissions 24/7. This advances our ability to reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants on a global scale.”
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will split the $1 million cost under their joint Technology Advancement Program (TAP). TAP is a grant program created under the ports’ landmark Clean Air Action Plan to accelerate the evaluation and demonstration of new and emerging clean technologies for reducing and ultimately eliminating harmful emissions from all port-related sources. Ships generate the lion’s share of air pollution associated with port activity.
Under its “radical retrofit” program, Maersk Line upgraded vessels that already plug into shore power at the San Pedro Bay ports. The additional improvements include redesigning the bulbous bow of each vessel, replacing existing propellers with more efficient models, and “derating” the main engines to make them more efficient at lower speeds.
The retrofit program also involved raising the bridge to increase each ship’s capacity from about 9,500 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) to about 11,000 TEUs. This allows Maersk Line to carry more containers per vessel while decreasing their environmental impact per container moved.
The energy efficiency makeover is expected to decrease each ship’s fuel consumption by more than 10 percent, saving an estimated 10,000 metric tons of fuel on an annual basis. This would reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by an estimated 31,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year and lead to similar reductions of diesel particulate matter (DPM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx). A single ton of CO2 would fill a 1,400-square-foot house.
Since 2007, Maersk Line has reduced GHG emissions associated with its vessel operations by 42 percent on a per container, per kilometer basis. The Retrofits and TAP demonstration project with the San Pedro Bay ports will help Maersk Line reach its goal of a 60 percent reduction of CO2 and other pollutants by 2020.
Both the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach continue to pursue aggressive clean air programs with the goal of eliminating all harmful emissions from port-related sources. Over the last decade, DPM emissions have declined as much as 85 percent, NOx emissions have been cut in half, SOx emissions have plummeted 97 percent, and GHG emissions are down an average of 12 percent, based on the latest annual inventories that measure the impact of the San Pedro Bay ports’ pollution-reducing strategies.
The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are the two largest ports in the nation, first and second respectively, and combined are the ninth-largest port complex in the world. The two ports handle approximately 40 percent of the nation’s total containerized import traffic and 25 percent of its total exports. Trade that flows through the San Pedro Bay ports complex generates more than 3 million jobs nationwide.
Maersk Line is the world’s largest container shipping company, known for reliable, flexible and eco-efficient services. With 306 offices in 114 countries, Maersk provides ocean transportation services to customers in all parts of the world. Maersk employs 7,700 seafarers and 22,000 land-based employees and operates 630 container vessels. The company markets its services through the Maersk Line, Safmarine, SeaLand (Intra-Americas), MCC Transport (Intra-Asia) and Seago Line (Intra-Europe) brands.