Updates on Major U.S. Ports
Keep in mind that port operations are significantly affected by disruptions in rail and truck operations, and vice versa. Rails, ports, and truckers are all facing equipment and labor shortages coupled with high volume. FreightWaves reported on July 28, "With the count now rising to 153, the North American container ship queue has increased in size by 66% over the past seven weeks." West Coast California's controversial law AB5 threaten [...]
Read MoreSupply Chain Updates | July 2022
We put together an overview of key supply chain updates from the first 6 months of 2022. Read in full or choose a topic to look at below! Import Volume & Consumer Demand Congestion & Development at Major Ports Fuel Cost & Shipping Rates Key Legislation Looking Ahead to the Rest of 2022 Sources for Further Reading Import Volume & Consumer Demand Import volume and consumer demand remain at rec [...]
Read More5 Examples of Reasonable Care for Shippers
Background “Informed Compliance” and “Shared Responsibility” are two of the guiding precepts of the Customs Modernization Act. Informed Compliance means Customs (CBP) has an obligation to provide the trade community with better information about its responsibilities under customs regulations. Shared Responsibility means that CBP and the trade community will work together to voluntarily comply with those regulations. Summa [...]
Read MoreCustoms Penalties and Fines & 5 Ways to Avoid Them
What are Customs Penalties and Fines For? Importing is a privilege that Customs can revoke. It can be revoked for repeated violations, penalties, or fines for any of the three levels of offenses (and sometimes for just a single violation of a major offense). Those three levels are: negligence (the failure to use reasonable care)gross negligence (with actual knowledge or wanton disregard)fraud (voluntary and intentional actions) Cus [...]
Read MoreForced Labor, Informed Compliance, & Next Steps
“Have you taken reliable measures to ensure imported goods are not produced wholly or in part with convict labor, forced labor, and/or indentured labor (including forced or indentured child labor)?” This is the basic question CBP asks in their revised version of the Informed Compliance Publication (ICP) – “Reasonable Care” – a revision brought about by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA). This Act was [...]
Read MoreOcean Carrier Complaints & What Might Change
Summary Over the past three years in particular, steamship lines have come under scrutiny for billing and shipping practices, from detention and demurrage charges to powerful alliances and export procedures. The Federal Maritime Commission has been at the center of many of these conversations, as it handles complaints against ocean carriers and is the subject of the proposed Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022. In this article, we break dow [...]
Read More2022 Union Negotiations at West Coast Ports
Summary Union negotiations for 29 West Coast ports (affecting roughly 22,000 workers) began on May 10th. Here’s what we know about this year’s proceedings as well as possible ramifications later in the summer. Negotiations are between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), who have issued a joint statement stating their intent to reach a beneficial agreement: “Our goal is to [...]
Read MoreCost and Freight & Cost, Insurance, and Freight
This article is part of our weekly blog series on the Incoterms® Rules — we will be looking at a new term every Tuesday Cost and Freight (CFR) and Cost, Insurance, and Freight (CIF) are the last two trade terms of the total 11 Incoterms® Rules, and apply only to sea and inland waterway transport. Under CFR and CIF, the seller assumes the costs of loading the goods onto the vessel for departure, as well as cost of carriage to the [...]
Read MoreFree Alongside Ship (FAS) and Free On Board (FOB)
This article is part of our weekly blog series on the Incoterms® Rules — we will be looking at a new term every Tuesday Free Alongside Ship (FAS) and Free on Board (FOB) are the first two terms on the list that only apply to sea and inland waterway transport. We will consider them together due to the simple difference between them. Both terms place primary responsibility on the buyer to assume costs and risks, unlike the last term consi [...]
Read MoreDelivered Duty Paid (DDP)
This article is part of our weekly blog series on the Incoterms® Rules — we will be looking at a new term every Tuesday “Delivered Duty Paid” places the most responsibility on the seller out of all the Incoterms®. DDP goes beyond the seller assuming costs and risks of carriage to an agreed upon destination (as in DAP and DPU), to fulfilling export, transit, and import requirements as well. If an importer wants a shipment to arrive [...]
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