CPSC to Soon Consider e-Filing Pilot, Now Set for July 2016 if Approved
A Federal Register notice announcing a Consumer Product Safety Commission pilot of electronic filing of certificates of compliance has been drafted and is currently under consideration by the agency’s five commissioners, said Carol Cave, CPSC assistant executive director-import surveillance, at the July 29 meeting of the CBP Advisory Committee of Commercial Operations in Chicago. If approved, CPSC now intends to begin the pilot in July 2016, five months later than earlier anticipated, she said.
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A draft of the notice, as provided to the CPSC commissioners as part of a briefing package (here), indicates the agency still plans to allow for a “streamlined” approach of using a single date element on entry documentation to reference a full certificate on file in a separate agency registry (see 1503120069). The pilot will be limited to nine participants, selected based on their importing and compliance history and use of the Automated Commercial Environment, with an eye toward “having a diverse cross section of the trade community participate,” the draft notice said.
The commission is set to vote on whether to issue the notice and begin the pilot at a public meeting scheduled for Aug. 12, said Cave. If the notice is not approved, CPSC will not move forward with the e-filing pilot, she said. If it is, then CPSC would “quickly” begin working with a Trade Support Network working group “to formulate the scope and definition of what that pilot will look like,” said Cave. CPSC would also publish its CATAIR requirements, which currently weigh in at 24 pages in draft form, she said. CPSC has already completed its mapping exercise of HTS codes subject to agency regulation, and will soon be providing it to CBP, said Cave.