BREAKBULK CARRIERS SEEK 24-HOUR RULE EXEMPTION

BREAKBULK CARRIERS SEEK 24-HOUR RULE EXEMPTION

   Breakbulk carriers with routine shipments to U.S. ports are increasingly requesting exemptions from U.S. Customs’ advance manifest regulation.

   Effective Dec. 2, Customs required ocean carriers and non-vessel-operating common carriers to file detailed manifests to Customs 24 hours prior to loading their containerized freight in overseas ports. The purpose of the regulation is to give Customs adequate time to screen “high risk” containers before they’re loaded on U.S.-bound ships.

   However, the agency allows breakbulk carriers to request exemptions under the 24-hour rule, because these shipments are viewed as less of a security threat than containerized freight. Customs defines breakbulk cargo as that which is packaged or bundled, not containerized.

   The advance manifest exemption requests for breakbulk cargo require detailed information about the shipments, such as sources, identity and means of packaging, ports of call overseas and domestically, vessel identifications, and lists of the carriers’ shippers and importers.

   Carriers receiving exemptions for breakbulk shipments must still, however, file complete cargo manifests to Customs 24 hours prior to arrival in U.S. seaports.

   As of Jan. 23, Customs has approved 47 breakbulk exemptions, and about a dozen more requests are pending. The agency rejected 14 requests because the companies lacked sufficient information or weren’t carriers. Some didn’t return follow-up telephone calls from the agency, said Charles Bartoldus, director of border targeting and analysis for Customs’ Office of Field Operations at an industry meeting.

   The breakbulk exemption requests generally take three to four weeks to process through Customs. Once an exemption is approved, Customs has the next 180 days to conduct further reviews of the breakbulk carrier’s operations, and maintains the right to terminate a breakbulk carrier’s exemption status.