Agencies Implement Temporary Alternatives for ACE FTZ Entries
ORLANDO -- Functionality for ACE Partner Government Agency (PGA) foreign-trade zone admissions needs several improvements, and federal agencies are adopting alternatives as ACE still can’t accept several PGA datasets, government officials said during the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones annual conference on Oct. 17. Jim Swanson, director of cargo security and controls in CBP’s Office of Field Operations, expressed disappointment in the fact that filers are often providing two to three sets of paperwork to different PGAs for what should be one filing and said that CBP and other agencies are working to ensure that the customs message set aligns with PGA frameworks. “Several PGAs indicated that they were at least interested in having a discussion about getting that PGA line level information when it’s submitted in a [electronic CBP Form] 214,” CBP’s foreign-trade zone admission document. “We think that’s a final solution.”
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Swanson said CBP will work with filers to reduce penalties they might incur because of issues with automation processes, as the government works toward full ACE implementation. A central challenge in streamlining FTZ filings into ACE is that many PGAs fundamentally deem FTZ operations to be imports and exports, rather than part of non-U.S. commerce, Swanson said. PGAs that work with FTZs most often follow zone-specific protocols, he said. “The regulations and the statutes of the government don’t even recognize the status of zones in the supply chain,” Swanson said. CBP is looking to streamline FTZ filing procedures, but it will probably “take a while” to get there, Swanson acknowledged.
As the government works to integrate CBP’s e214 into ACE, FTZ pesticide filers in the meantime should file Disclaimer “A” to disclaim filings that receive EPA tariff flag “EP5,” which notes that certain pesticide filings might require more information, EPA ACE Technical Lead Roy Chaudet said via telephone during the NAFTZ conference. NAFTZ in comments to CBP recently requested that the agency and the EPA adopt interim filing measures, such as disclaimers, for all products subject to Toxic Substances Control Act filings, so that FTZ users can import goods subject to negative TSCA certifications with minimal disruption, as trade awaits the completion of e214 development (see 1610030010). The EPA also plans to eliminate tariff flag “EP6,” which requires specific pesticide data, so the agency is “pretty much” allowing filers to disclaim all pesticides for now, Chaudet said.
ACE implementation hasn’t presented any unique FTZ-related challenges for FDA, because the agency has worked in that area for awhile, said Andrew Seaborn, supervisory consumer safety officer at the Division of Import Operations in the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Regulatory Affairs. “We’re going to still collect samples and do examinations for products coming out of foreign-trade zones,” Seaborn said. But he noted that even though FTZs might get approval to file weekly entries, “it is often the case” that ACE does not return a “may proceed” message after FTZ certification. Seaborn told filers to let FDA know about any such issues. The agency is working on smoothing inconsistencies with weekly entry processing, and the Division of Import Operations’ growth from eight to 75 employees since 2009 should assist field officers in providing steadier guidance, he said.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is only requiring data when a product is admitted to an FTZ, and the agency would only require any additional information if the goods were exported from the zone, said Tamesha Woulard, senior wildlife inspector in FWS’s Office of Law Enforcement. “Because we don’t have any other process after the fact, we need our data upon admission into the zone,” she said. When an FWS-jurisdiction product transfers from a zone into U.S. commerce, ACE would merely need to verify that the product was legally imported, by checking the filer’s FWS electronic declaration (eDec) number, she said. ACE would process the shipment after FWS confirms the eDec.
FWS is working on a proposed rule for its rollout of mandatory ACE filing, but has run into several issues over the last month, so it’s unclear when that will happen, Woulard said. But the agency will give the trade “plenty of notice,” and provide information on who will need to file data and where, she said. “What we’re finding is that, because of the other bigger-impact agencies, the software developers had not programmed for us,” Woulard said. “We were kind of last on the list, so we’re still working with them to work out the bugs.”