The Los Angeles Harbor Commission has approved up to $44.2 million in Port funding toward the 2009 Clean Truck Incentive Program at the Port of Los Angeles. The funds will be used to offer concessionaires in the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program (CTP) incentives of up to $80,000 for each Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) or Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) truck they purchase. Port terminal operators or concessionaires can also receive up to 80 percent of negotiated cost for each electric truck they purchase for terminal or drayage truck use. (News release, dated 05/08/09, available at http://www.portoflosangeles.org/newsroom/2009_releases/news_050809_lng.asp)
CBP has posted the April 2009 customs broker exam and answer key to its Web site. According to CBP sources, the pass rate is not yet available. (See future issue of ITT for details when the pass rate becomes available.)(Exam and Key, posted 05/06/09, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/trade_programs/broker/broker_exam/exam_and_key_downloads/)
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued a notice announcing that it has prepared an evaluation of the animal health status of Suffolk and Norfolk Counties, England, relative to the H5N1 subtype of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Comments are due by June 8, 2009. APHIS press release available here. (D/N APHIS-2009-0015, FR Pub 05/07/09, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-10630.pdf)
During the May 6, 2009 Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC) meeting, Richard DiNucci, Director of CBP's Secure Freight Initiative, provided an update on 10+2.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a revised version of its informed compliance publication entitled, What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Internal Combustion Piston Engines.
The Court of International Trade is currently considering the case of Lizarraga Customs Broker v. Bureau of CBP et al. regarding U.S. Customs and Border Protection's deactivation of the entry filer code of a customs broker who, according to CBP, sold the use of his code to unauthorized third parties and repeatedly misused it in other ways.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message regarding the computer changes necessary for the implementation of the Food and Drug Administration's May 6, 2009 final rule on prior notice (PN) of food (including animal feed), which is imported or offered for import into the U.S.
The Government Accountability Office has issued a report and agency comments on its review and oral briefing for the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on the Department of Homeland Security's fiscal year 2009 expenditure plan for the Secure Border Initiative (SBI). Approval of SBI's expenditure plan by these committees was required before DHS could obligate $400 million of the approximately $775 million appropriated for U.S. Customs and Border Protection fencing, infrastructure, and technology. (GAO report summary, dated 04/30/09, available at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-274R)
In November 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued its interim final rule which amended 19 CFR to require Security Filing (SF) information from importers and additional information from carriers (10+2) for vessel (maritime) cargo before it is brought into the U.S.
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.