U.S. Customs delays post-entry amendments

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 10, 2000) — Post-entry amendment (PEA) procedures that were to go into effect this week have been postponed, according to John Durant, director of Commercial Rulings Division of the Office of Regulations and Rulings for the U.S. Customs Service.

Durant said that Customs would publish rules when the program would begin. He did not give a specific date, but said it would likely be sometime this month.

Rather than a set of stand-alone rules, Durant said that post-entry procedures will be introduced in the National Customs Automation Prototype (NCAP). The NCAP system is being used at a handful of border crossings to expedite the processing of customs documentation.

“Making this a procedure under NCAP gives us flexibility to do something different from the current regulations,” Durant said.

PEA was intended to give importers the chance to correct entries on a quarterly basis, and stem the flood of Supplemental Information Letters that importers have filed. Durant said that Customs was looking at a different corrective period, but declined to say how long it would be.