Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., introduced a bill meant to prevent "imports of fraudulent organic products that undercut American farmers," she said in a news release. The Organic Farmer and Consumer Protection Act would require that all National Organic Program Import Certificates include information on "the organic standard to which the agricultural product is certified," among other things. The bill would also require the Agriculture Secretary to create a system to track organic import certificates, which may be added "into any existing information tracking systems for imports of agricultural products." The Agriculture Department would also have to publicly release "detailed quantitative data on imports of organically produced agricultural products accepted
into" the U.S.. The legislation also calls for information sharing between ACE and the Hypomania Certificate Issuance and Tracking System of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The bill follows industry concerns and press reports related to cheap imports improperly labeled as organic (see 1705150031).
CBP issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
A Directorate of Defense Trade Controls waiver allowing for the return of Personal Protective Equipment when the equipment wasn't properly declared at the time export expired in March, CBP's Port of New York/Newark Director Adele Fasano said in a May 21 notice. The DDTC waiver, issued March 10, 2014, allowed for uniformed military personnel to reimport one set of body armor, one helmet, or one chemical protective gear, including one additional filter canister, CBP said. Effective immediately, all PPE gear "must be declared, citing the appropriate license or license exemption, via the Electronic Export Information in the Automated Export System (AES) at the time of export" and ACE at the time of import, CBP said. Shipments of PPE "that are identified as not having been properly declared at the time of export or at the time of re-importation, will be detained and referred to DDTC to determine if a violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations has occurred," the agency said.
CBP will move forward with its two-track filing system for Section 321 entries in ACE, creating a new option to clear shipments via entry type 86 in the Automated Broker Interface while still allowing clearance off manifest in the Automated Manifest System, it said in a May 22 announcement of priority areas for $30 million in additional ACE development funding it received in appropriations legislation. As expected by some in industry (see 1802130035), the ABI option will be optional for filers but required for entries with partner government agency (PGA) data, CBP said.
Supply chain professionals and trade group executives praised the progress U.S. government agencies have made in trade facilitation, and pointed to areas where they could still make progress, during the Global Supply Chain Summit hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on May 22. The Unified Cargo Processing pilot, which is soon expanding from seven ports of entry to nine (see 1803300020), has reduced crossing time by up to 75 percent, according to Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. He also talked about how private industry can help CBP be more business friendly, such as with private dollars helping to fund a 3.5-mile shortcut from the Mariposa port of entry in Nogales, Arizona, to the highway. He said they're lobbying CBP to set up a donations acceptance program to build a cold storage inspection facility at a port of entry, too. He said his group would also like to see Canada try unified cargo processing with CBP.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 14-18 in case they were missed.
CBP will prioritize Section 321 filing via the Automated Broker Interface, an update to CBP Form 5106 importer information, and modernizing foreign-trade zone “e214” admissions, among other new and revised functionalities, with the additional $30 million in ACE funding it received in fiscal year 2018 appropriations legislation, CBP said in an announcement on its website May 22.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP provided further details on how importers of goods excluded from Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum can file entries and receive refunds, in a May 21 CSMS message. "Importers and filers importing products granted an exclusion should submit the product exclusion number based on the last six digits of the product exclusion docket number," CBP said. Filers should not "submit the corresponding Chapter 99 HTS number for the Section 232 duties when the product exclusion number is submitted," the agency said.