525 S. Douglas St. , #100• El Segundo, CA 90245 • (310) 607-8000
Becoming a  USDA Approved Warehouse  isn’t an easy process. Coppersmith Chicago Branch Manager Lisa Gingerich worked diligently through the paperwork, process development and area designations needed for approval. She then began cataloging procedures that Coppersmith would use for spills or bugs.
Reminder: PierPass increases on August 1st.
Cargo owners are reminded that traffic mitigation fees collected to support night and weekend gates will increase Aug. 1 at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The fee will rise 1.9 percent to $32.12 per TEU on most loaded containers.

Marine terminal operators say the PierPass program offsets about three-quarters of the cost of off-peak shifts.
Coppersmith attends CBP Trade Symposium.
Chicago Branch Manager Lisa Gingerich attended CBP's Trade Symposium in Chicago on July 23rd and 24th. The annual event drew nearly 1,300 registrants to hear from CBP senior leadership on the issues which are of keen interest to the trade. They talked about everything from the exponential increase in e-Commerce, the Port of the Future (a focus on changes in technology at land borders with Canada and Mexico) and export modernization.

Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan also shared the agency's three goals of transparency, collaboration and communication when dealing with the trade. With the fluidity of trade remedy actions on commodities or with certain countries, the more we hear from the agency the better we can be at conveying their priorities and what importers and exporters can and should be doing to remain compliant.
Hunting trophies arriving in Atlanta subject to new inspection rules and process.
CBP in the Port of Atlanta has changed the rules governing inspection of hunting trophies when it is the first point of arrival from overseas. In short, any shipment not destined for a USDA Approved Facility will require to be examined at the arriving airline first before it can be moved either in-bond or Customs cleared in Atlanta. We have written about this on our blog and provided a letter detailing the change and fees. Click the button below to read more.
Since the G20 meeting in Osaka things have been quiet on the US/China front. The Chinese committed to a tariff-free soybean purchase from the United States and both sides have been talking on the phone with one another. Next week they will resume face-to-face negotiations as a US delegation heads back to Shanghai. At the Trade Symposium, CBP talked a great deal about illicit trade and how cargo is leaving China for countries like Malaysia where illegal transshipment is rampant. We strongly encourage our clients who are looking at new countries of origin for items in their supply chains to ensure that they are truly purchasing products made in those countries, not ones moved their illegally and remarked. Coppersmith is ready to help.
The Trump administration’s ongoing trade spat with the European Union continued this month with plans from the U.S. Trade Representative for an additional $4 billion in tariffs on goods from across the Atlantic, mostly food stuffs. The tariffs are being imposed as damages, approved by the World Trade Organization, for illegal EU subsidies for Airbus in the aviation market. Implementation of the tariffs is subject to an arbitrator’s determination of harm to Boeing. The USTR will hold a hearing on the supplemental list on Aug. 5. The last thing anyone wants is another Section 301 list to manage, but we encourage importers to familiarize themselves with the newest potential list.
Earlier this year, GSP benefits were terminated for India because of a disagreement between the countries on market access for American products and services. Many US companies are purchasers of GSP goods from India and have already had to deal with the "expiration and re-authorization with retroactive duty reimbursements," that the program has experienced the past several renewals. The US and India are back talking in response to India's retaliatory move of imposing higher duties on a number of US products. The US is challenging those tariffs at the WTO, but hopefully negotiations will find a way to resolve the dispute.
An overhaul of the export manifest process is forthcoming from CBP. The agency announced that they have been conducting pilots of their Electronic Export Manifest, or EEM, across the air, rail and ocean modalities. Chris Gillis provides a great summation in this American Shipper article , but in short, "EEM pilots require participating freight forwarders, which have traditionally filed their shippers’ export information in the Automated Export System (AES), to supply house bill- and air waybill-level details directly to CBP and then inform the carriers that they have completed the filing. The carriers submit their own master manifests electronically to CBP."
With the election of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the outcome of Brexit is once again on the minds of the global logistics community. Johnson has committed the country to have the Brexit process resolved by October 31st and is seemingly willing to take the "hard Brexit" route if a negotiated departure cannot be reached with the European Union. For logistics and shipping companies in the UK, this has led to a number of vessel operators to cease flying the British flag . With the need to inventory for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, little can be done to build out sufficient space by the deadline and warehouse operators say they're full . Scarier is that there has been little attention or thought paid to what will happen to border operations between Ireland and Northern Ireland.