Sec. 146.40 Operator responsibilities for direct delivery.
(a) Arrival of conveyance. Upon arrival at a subzone or zone site of
a conveyance containing foreign merchandise, the operator shall:
(1) Collect in-bond or cartage documentation from the carrier;
(2) Check the condition of any seal affixed to the conveyance, and
if broken, missing or improperly affixed, notify the port director and
receive instructions before unloading the merchandise;
(3) Check each incoming in-bond and cartage shipment to determine if
the manifested quantity or the quantity on the cartage document agrees
with the quantity actually received;
(4) Sign and date the in-bond or cartage documentation to accept
responsibility for the merchandise under the Foreign Trade Zone
Operator's Bond and to relieve the carrier of responsibility.
(5) Forward the in-bond or cartage documentation so as to reach the
port director within 2 working days after the date of arrival of the
conveyance at the subzone or zone site;
(6) Maintain a file of open in-bond manifests in chronological order
of date of conveyance arrival to identify shipments that have arrived
but the entire contents of which have not been admitted to the subzone
or zone site; and
(7) Notify the port director, by annotation on the Customs Form 214,
when the entire contents of a shipment have been admitted.
(b) Transportation by operator. If merchandise is transported to a
subzone or zone site by the foreign trade zone operator from a location
in the district (see definition of ``district'' at Sec. 112.1) in which
the subzone or zone site is situated, the merchandise is deemed admitted
at the time the foreign trade zone operator picks it up. At the time of
pick-up, the operator is responsible for:
(1) Receipting for the merchandise and recording on the appropriate
document any discrepancies regarding quantity, condition or the status
of the seals;
(2) Transporting the merchandise to the zone or subzone; and
(3) Ensuring that the zone records reflect that the merchandise is
received in the zone.
(c) Admission of merchandise: alternative procedures--(1) Cumulative
Customs Form 214. If the operator has an agreement with the Bureau of
Census for direct transmittal of statistical information, he shall
submit to the port director each business day a properly signed and
uniquely numbered Customs Form 214 listing all merchandise except for
domestic status merchandise admitted under Sec. 146.43 recorded into the
inventory control and recordkeeping system during the previous business
day. The Customs Form 214 must contain a list of all in-bond (I.T.)
numbers or the unique number of any cartage document, as well as the
number of invoices for each I.T. or cartage document, pertaining to
merchandise which has been entered into the system.
(2) Individual Customs Form 214. If a cumulative Customs Form 214 is
not submitted as provided in paragraph (b)(1) of this section, the
operator shall file with the port director each business day an
individual Customs Form 214 and 214-A covering each shipment recorded
into the inventory control and recordkeeping system during the previous
business day. The forms shall be submitted within 10 days after the end
of the month in which the merchandise was received in the zone, and no
extension beyond that time will be approved by the port director.
(3) General order. Merchandise which is not admitted into a subzone
or zone site as provided in this section within 5 working days after its
arrival there may be sent to general order unless:
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(i) The port director grants the operator's request for an extension
of the 5 working day period; or
(ii) The importer of record files an appropriate Customs entry for
the mechandise and removes it from the zone premises.
(4) Inventory control and recordkeeping system. The operator shall
establish and maintain a continuing input quality control program to
ensure that information concerning merchandise in admission documents,
verified or corrected by counts and checks, is accurately recorded in
the inventory control and recordkeeping system. Quantities recorded in
the system, after allowance by the port director for any discrepancies,
will be the quantities of merchandise for which the operator shall be
held liable under its bond for admission to the subzone or zone site. A
discrepancy involving a within-case shortage (or overage) need not be
reported on Customs Form 5931, if the operator is able to report that
information in another manner so that the port director can determine
whether there is liability for the discrepancy under the bond of any
party to the importation.
[T.D. 86-16, 51 FR 5049, Feb. 11, 1986, as amended by T.D. 94-81, 59 FR
51497, Oct. 12, 1994; T.D. 95-77, 60 FR 50020, Sept. 27, 1995]
