EPA ACE Filing Likely Not Ready for Summer, CPSC Filing Not Until End of Decade, Officials Say
ARLINGTON, Va. -- As the Food and Drug Administration readies for CBP’s June 15 deadline for filing of FDA entries and entry summaries in ACE, other agencies have further to go before their partner government agency (PGA) filing capabilities become available, government officials said during a panel discussion at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference. Despite indications from CBP that the Environmental Protection Agency would be among the agencies scheduled for ACE filing this summer, EPA now looks like it won’t be ready until closer to the end of the year, one EPA official said. Likewise, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, though nearing the start of its e-filing pilot, may not be ready for full ACE filing until 2019 or 2020, the commission’s import director said.
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Several long-running EPA pilots are still ongoing, including on non-road vehicle imports and pesticide notices of arrival, both of which are limited to nine participants, as well as unlimited pilots on ozone-depleting substances and Toxic Substances Control Act submissions. While EPA’s non-road vehicle and engine pilot is full, and there’s only room for one more participant in the notice of arrival pilot, EPA’s TSCA filing pilot is “wide open,” and with only a “handful of elements” it’s “easy to do,” Roy Chaudet of EPA said.
Though EPA was listed as one of the PGAs set for summer deployment in ACE, a slate of regulations the agency has to issue first will make meeting that goal unlikely, Chaudet said. EPA is “working very closely” with CBP to issue new regulations allowing electronic filing for non-road vehicles and engines, pesticides and toxic chemical imports, Chaudet said. However, the agency has yet to issue even proposed rules and allow time for public comment, so final regulations are a ways off, he said. “With no proposed rule on the street yet and we’re in June, I think summer is pretty tight,” Chaudet said, adding that final rules will be published and electronic filing allowed by the end of the year.
Importers of CPSC-regulated products are looking at a longer time frame before they can file PGA data in ACE, said Jim Joholske, of CPSC’s Office of Import Surveillance and Inspection. The commission selected nine importers for participation in its e-filing “alpha” pilot, and those importers will bring along their customs brokers and software developers. CPSC is in the final stage of programming and testing before the pilot is set to begin on July 2, Joholske said. The pilot is scheduled to last six months, after which the commission will analyze the results and make any necessary changes, including to the five data elements it is tentatively requiring in ACE. CPSC staff then plans to begin a “beta pilot” in 2017, open to around 100 companies, before it moves into the final rulemaking process, Joholske said. Any final rule requiring ACE filing of CPSC data probably won’t happen until 2019 or 2020, he said. “We’ve got a ways to go.”