Several agencies have said they are at least willing to consider accepting partner government agency (PGA) data at the time of admission of goods into a foreign-trade zone, said leadership from the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones at the NAFTZ Legislative Summit on Feb. 15 in Washington. Once CBP implements its Form 214 application for FTZ admission form in ACE, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration could use the new capability to accept data before entry, they said.
Lacey Act
The Lacey Act and subsequent amendments make it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, or acquire any plant, fish or wildlife obtained in violation of U.S., tribal or foreign law, as well as any injurious wildlife. The law is administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and CBP. APHIS has been implementing Lacey Act declaration requirements since 2009. Lacey Act declarations may be filed by the importer of record or its licensed customs broker, and include information on imported item's species name, value, quantity, and country where it was harvested.
Popp Forest Products destroyed 24 pallets of timber from Peru as part of a settlement over allegations of Lacey Act violations, the Justice Department said on Jan. 18 (here). The timber was imported by Popp Forest and seized by ICE Homeland Security Investigations in December of 2015 at the Port of Houston, the DOJ said. The settlement marks the first time the U.S. "has taken such action under the Lacey Act, which was amended in 2008 to include timber products," the DOJ said. The settlement "resolves allegations that the timber was harvested in Peru without proper authorization as required under Peruvian law or outside an approved zone," it said. The company agreed to "bear all costs associated with the transportation, destruction, and disposal of the seized timber" and the DOJ agreed to waive further civil enforcement action, it said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over imports and exports published their regulatory plans for the next several months as part of the Fall 2016 Unified Agenda (here). New rulemakings include the development of a national standard for disclosing bioengineered food, a final rule to require filing of new data elements for high-risk seafood imports and a proposal to allow imports of poultry slaughtered in China.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Oct. 3-7 in case they were missed.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow for several "interim" measures for filing electronic Lacey Act information in ACE for goods leaving Foreign Trade Zones, the agency said in a letter to the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones. The interim measures are necessary because the electronic CBP Form 214 (e214) system, used to provide data for Partner Government Agencies on goods admitted into an FTZ, won't be "fully integrated for PGA data until 2017," APHIS Administrator Kevin Shea said in a Sept. 7 letter to the NAFTZ. Entry/entry summaries for entry type 06 were required to be filed in ACE as of May 28, but the requirement won't be enforced until after Nov. 28 (see 1608190035).
A Maine importer faces up to $1.25 million in fines and forfeitures after pleading guilty to Lacey Act violations related to seafood it imported from Canada, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine said (here). ISF Trading bought sea urchins from a Canadian supplier, TGK Fisheries of Grand Manan, that wasn’t authorized to export to the U.S., then brought them across the border under the false label of a different Canadian company, Matthews Seafood, that was allowed to export, the U.S. attorney’s office said. ISF also faces up to five years of probation.
CBP will begin enforcing on Nov. 28 the mandatory filing of type 06 foreign-trade zone entries and entry summaries with Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service Lacey Act data in ACE via the partner government agency (PGA) message set, though such data has technically been required since May 28, CBP said in an update to its list of ACE pilot statuses (here). A previous status update had said the mandatory date itself was Nov. 28, which appeared to conflict with CBP’s ACE schedule (see 1608120029).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP plans to mandate filing in ACE of electronic Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service “core” data “early this fall,” it said in an update on the status of partner government agency (PGA) pilots (here). The pilot for APHIS core, which includes all filings except those required by the Lacey Act, such as PGA data required for imports of plants, live animals and animal products under APHIS’ Animal Care, Biotechnology Regulatory Services, Veterinary Services and Plant Protection and Quarantine programs, is set to end Aug. 15, at which point "entry filers will be required to file electronic entries in ACE with APHIS data and some or all APHIS forms using the method designated on the CBP Web site for the submission of the APHIS data and forms" (see 1607150020). Also on the horizon is the ACE mandatory use date for National Marine Fisheries Service data, coming in “late August or September,” CBP said.