The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s pilot to test “core” non-Lacey Act data in the Automated Commercial Environment is now live and accepting participants for filings under the agency’s Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) and Veterinary Services (VS) programs, said APHIS officials during a webinar held jointly with CBP on Dec. 9. Two other programs, Biotechnology Regulatory Services and Animal Care, are not yet ready for piloting but will be “in the future,” said Sean Blount, APHIS’ acting assistant director for Quarantine Policy, Analysis and Support.
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.
The National Association of Foreign Trade Zones (NAFTZ) continues to have major concerns with the schedule for mandatory use of the Automated Commercial Environment, it said in a Dec. 8 letter to CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske (here). A "general lack of understanding" related to FTZ reporting among the Partner Government Agencies adds to the trade association's worries for ACE, it said. The NAFTZ made a number of its concerns known in a letter last month that called for a delay to parts of the ACE rollout (see 1511190017).
Federal agencies with a hand in regulating trade listed their plans for issuing new regulations in the Fall 2015 Unified Agenda (here). New rules from FDA would amend labeling requirements for animal drugs, finalize changes to food facility registration requirements and continue to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act. Upcoming rules from the Agriculture Department are set to affect genetically engineered foods and labeling of meat products.
BALTIMORE -- CBP is working to ensure that efforts to stem illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud comport with mandates to streamline border processes and don’t impose unreasonable burdens on the trade community, said Jeffrey Nii, director of the agency’s Interagency Collaboration Division, at the East Coast Trade Symposium on Nov. 5.
BALTIMORE -- CBP will no longer allow substantial changes to Automated Commercial Environment filing requirements for the three partner government agencies (PGAs) set for full implementation on Feb. 28, said Brenda Smith, CBP assistant commissioner-international trade, at a press conference held Nov. 4 at CBP’s East Coast Trade Symposium. However, the agency may still have to implement fixes for bugs and broken policies, she said. An official from one of those agencies, the Food and Drug Administration, later said changes may still be necessary to correct issues or account for new deployments in ACE that may affect FDA.
CBP should “lock down” Automated Commercial Environment business rules, implementation guides, and record layouts for all partner government agencies (PGAs), allowing no additional changes prior to the February 2016 ACE mandatory use date in order to give filers time to implement and test PGA programming, said the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) in a recommendation adopted at the group’s Oct. 29 meeting. “The agencies have had enough time to finalize their layouts,” said the recommendation, put forward by the COAC One U.S. Government at the Border (1USG) committee. “Importers and filers need to be afforded the same courtesy, in terms of having adequate time to complete and test their own programming.”
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – CBP’s partner government agency (PGA) filing pilots in the Automated Commercial Environment are still hampered by a lack of participants, said Steve Hilsen, leader of International Trade Data System efforts at CBP, speaking at the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade Northeast Cargo Symposium on Oct. 27. Some PGAs are “ready to roll” with their pilot programs, but have yet to attract a single volunteer, he said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Oct. 5-9 in case they were missed.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Lumber Liquidators agreed to pay $10 million to settle criminal customs and Lacey Act charges related to flooring it imported from China that was made from illegally harvested wood, said the company in an Oct. 7 press release (here). The settlement marks the culmination of a long-running federal investigation of Lumber Liquidators for Lacey Act violations that included a raid on company headquarters in 2013 (see 13092716), though it does not resolve claims that the company’s wood flooring has elevated formaldehyde content (see 13120432 and 1503260020), said the release.