U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted documents on changes to the Customs and Trade Interface Requirements (CATAIR) Appendix T, which provides codes and qualifiers for the PGA Message Set. Changes include the addition of new codes for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), added a code for FDA Clinical Investigator, reduced category type codes to comply with World Customs Organization guidelines for certain code lengths, etc. CBP also recently posted the change record for the CATAIR chapter on the PGA Message Set.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Plant Protection and Quarantine Service states that ePermits is currently experiencing technical issues and will be unavailable until further notice. Updates will be sent as soon as the system is available. For urgent issues please contact your ePermits Program Coordinator or the eAPPS Help Desk (1-888-272-3181).
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for January 17-20, 2012 in case they were missed last week.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the following links to online resources on wood packaging material (WPM):
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has updated the following PPQ electronic manuals through January 18, 2012 (since the last update dated January 9, 2012):
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Plant Protection and Quarantine unit states that the National Information Technology Center has scheduled maintenance for the ePermits and FAVIR systems on Friday, January 20, 2012. The systems will be down from 7:00 p.m. EST through 10:00 p.m. EST. During this time, PPQ states that the Fruits and Vegetables Manual can be referred to for regulatory decision making. Email documents@brokerpower.com for copy of APHIS/PPQ email message.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Plant Protection and Quarantine unit states that the National Information Technology Center has scheduled maintenance for the ePermits and FAVIR systems on Saturday, January 14, 2012. The systems will be down from 7:00 a.m. EST through 10:00 a.m. EST. During this time, PPQ states that the Fruits and Vegetables Manual can be referred to for regulatory decision making. Email documents@brokerpower.com for copy of APHIS/PPQ email message.
Officials at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service now state that the inter-agency report to Congress on the Lacey Act declaration is expected to be completed and sent to the Office of Management and Budget by the end of January 2012. At OMB, the report will be subject to a formal agency comment process, which sources hope will occur in a streamlined manner as these agencies were involved in writing the report. Officials also state that the final rule to define two categories of products that are exempt from the Lacey Act Declaration -- common cultivar and common food crop -- is now very close to completion.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced on January 6, 2012 that it would no longer regulate eight organisms at ports of entry, as the National Plant Board concurs with its recommendation to change the regulatory status to non-actionable for these pests.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has updated the following PPQ electronic manuals through January 9, 2012 (since the last update dated December 29, 2011):