TUCSON, Arizona -- The Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to finalize a proposed rule on its ACE filing requirements at the end of 2022, said Rhyan Tompkins, the agency’s ACE coordinator, at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference May 2. The rulemaking would mark one of the final steps in what has been a stop-and-go process to develop the agency’s partner government agency (PGA) message set, with a voluntary ACE filing pilot open to all filers since 2020. Once ACE filing is mandatory, the agency will continue to allow filing as either a limited dataset, with most data filed in the agency’s eDecs (electronic declarations) system and only a confirmation number provided in ACE, or the extended dataset comprising all the required data elements in ACE, Tompkins said.
The National Marine Fisheries Service updated its certification of admissibility that is required for imports of fish from Mexico, CBP said in a CSMS message. The revised form expires May 31. "Mexican authorities have been notified that this form should be used for fish landed in Mexican ports beginning May 1, 2022," CBP said. "Entries from Mexico under the designated HTS codes that are not accompanied by the COA are inadmissible." The certification requirements are meant to help protect the endangered vaquita, a species of porpoise endemic to the northern Gulf of California (see 2003050043).
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is amending definitions in its regulations for “firearm frame or receiver” and “frame or receiver” subject to licensing, serialization, and recordkeeping requirements so they cover modern multipiece frames and receivers, as well as privately made “ghost guns,” it said in a final rule April 26. The final rule also includes provisions for weapons parts kits to “ensure proper licensing, marking, recordkeeping, and background checks,” the ATF said. The final rule takes effect Aug. 24.
The Federal Maritime Commission recently published an instructional video to help industry file shipping complaints. The video explains which processes are “most beneficial to achieving a complainant’s desired outcome,” including how members of the public can report information that may trigger an investigation or initiate formal civil litigation that can provide wronged parties with damages and restitution, the FMC said.
Agricultural trading giant Cargill has stopped purchasing palm oil products from Malaysian firm Sime Darby Plantation following the U.S. withhold release order on Sime Darby's palm oil goods (see 2012300007), Bloomberg reported April 18. The WRO was placed on Sime Darby relating to evidence of forced labor in the company's operations. Cargill told Bloomberg purchases of Sime Darby palm oil ceased Feb. 25.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is temporarily adding seven synthetic benzimidazole-opioid substances -- butonitazene, etodesnitazene, flunitazene, metodesnitazene, metonitazene, n-pyrrolidino etonitazene and protonitazene -- to Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, it said in a notice released April 11. The listing takes effect April 12, and will be in effect for up to three years.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's plans to use "enhanced safety inspections of vehicles as they cross international ports of entry into Texas" to prevent illegal immigration threatens to further overload the already strained supply chain, the Border Trade Alliance said April 8. Abbott said he instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety to inspect commercial vehicles coming into the U.S. due to the coming end of a policy that prevented migrants from entering the U.S. during the pandemic. "I know in advance this is going to dramatically slow traffic from Mexico into Texas," he said. The BTA said it opposes any "state-level action that results in an inspection process that duplicates the inspections already performed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, whose work at the land border ports of entry is informed by highly attuned risk assessment models, intelligence gathering, and a commitment to the agency’s dual mission of enforcement and facilitation."
The Drug Enforcement Administration permanently placed the synthetic cannabinoids 5F-EDMB-PINACA, 5F-MDMB-PICA, FUB-AKB48, 5F-CUMYL-PINACA and FUB-144 into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, in a final rule. The substances had already been temporarily listed in Schedule I since 2019 (see 1904150027). The final order is set to take effect April 7, when it's scheduled to be published in the Federal Register.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is placing the newly approved drug Quiviviq (daridorexant) in Schedule IV of the Controlled Substances Act, it said in an interim final rule. Effective April 7, daridorexant, which was granted FDA approval in January, is subject to new registration, labeling, record-keeping, and import and export requirements. DEA is accepting comments on the rule until May 9.
The Federal Maritime Commission is seeking public comments on an information collection related to non-vessel-operating common carrier service arrangements (NSAs), which can help the FMC adjudicate shipping disputes. Comments are due April 29.