CBP recently posted guidance on how it will enforce the Lacey Act Plant Product Declaration requirement for covered products beginning May 1, 2009. Among other things, the guidance provided information on a new pilot program for current participants in the Automated Line Release (ALR)/Border Release Advance Screening and Selectivity (BRASS) program whose products require a Lacey Act declaration during the current phase of enforcement. CBP's instructions for the pilot covers ALR/BRASS shipments for June 2009; CBP did not provide (or did not clearly provide) instructions for ALR/BRASS participants entering covered products during the month of May.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted new guidance on how it will enforce the Lacey Act Plant Product Declaration1 requirement for covered products beginning May 1, 2009.
CBP has posted April 7, 2009 versions of the following previously posted ACE Customs Automated Manifest Interface Requirements (CAMIR)-Air documents: Appendix A - Codes and the Message Line Identifiers chapter. These documents are posted for informational purposes and final versions of all ACE CAMIR-Air documents are expected soon. (See ITT's Online Archives or 12/10/08 news, 08121005, for BP summary on the ACE CAMIR-Air documents.)(ACE CAMIR-Air documents, posted 04/07/09 available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/automated/modernization/ace_edi_messages/camir_air/)
CBP has issued a CSMS message stating that as part of the April 12th ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Summary Types) release, CBP will be upgrading various software products that will result in messages in the "Task List" being lost. Any existing request from the trade community which displays in the "Task List" such as Account change requests, Merge Account requests, Cross Account Access requests and Notifications waiting approval will not migrate successfully. To ensure outstanding requests are not lost, the trade should notify their Account Manager/Account Administrator or open a trouble ticket with the Technology Support Center prior to April 12, 2009. (CSMS 09-000160, dated 04/06/09, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17548&page=&srch_argv=09-000160&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its recently issued Participating Government Agencies Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) chapter.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message stating that the code to accept the Lacey Act data was successfully deployed the morning of April 1, 2009 to both the Production and Certification regions. CBP notes that it has already received a number of entries containing Lacey Act data and that the application is working in good form. (CSMS 09-000156, dated 04/01/09, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17544&page=&srch_argv=09-000156&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service have issued instructions regarding the submission of the automated and paper versions of the Lacey Act Amendments Plant and Plant Products Declaration (PPQ 505).
According to several sources, U.S. Customs and Border Protection may soon announce a one month delay - until May 1, 2009 - of its enforcement of the Lacey Act Amendments declaration requirement for certain wood and wood articles classified in HTS Chapter 44 that are imported by rail or truck.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has updated certain instructions that appear on PPQ Form 505, the Lacey Act Amendments Plant and Plant Product Declaration (for imported plants and plant products), since its original December 2008 posting.
According to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sources, the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) Taxonomy for Plants1 is often a better tool for helping to determine the correct plant genus and species for the Lacey Act Amendments than the Plant Genus and Species Look Up provided on APHIS' Lacey Act Web page.