The National Marine Fisheries Service will hold a webinar Feb. 17 on its proposal to create the International Fisheries Trade Permit and require filing of in the Automated Commercial Environment, it said (here). The agency’s Dec. 29 proposed rule consolidates several existing permits under the new scheme (see 1512300015), and lays the groundwork for new permitting, filing and recordkeeping requirements proposed on Feb. 5 (see 1602040020).

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

CBP again adjusted its transition timeline for the Automated Commercial Environment following new concerns over the government's readiness to move from the Automated Commercial System, said CBP Feb. 8 (here). "While significant progress has been made, continued concerns about stakeholder readiness have necessitated an updated timeline for the mandatory transition to ACE for electronic entry and entry summary filing," said CBP. The shift marks the second major change to its schedule due to readiness uncertainty (see 1509010017).

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

CBP should adopt a “soft mandated” approach to its Feb. 28 Automated Commercial Environment deadline for cargo release entry types 01, 03 and 11, keeping the Automated Commercial System online as a fallback, and delay the deadline for both cargo release and entry summary for all other entry types until 90 days after programming has been finalized, said the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America in a letter to agency officials dated Feb. 2 (here).

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

More changes are on the way for the Food and Drug Administration’s supplemental guide for filing in the Automated Commercial Environment, but the changes are meant to ease, not add to the burden on industry, said Sandra Abbott, director of FDA’s Division of Compliance Systems, during a webinar hosted by the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America on Feb. 3. The basic data elements that will become mandatory Feb. 28 are set, but FDA still needs to fix bugs that are causing hiccups for filers, she said.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing new filing requirements at time of entry for imports of certain species of seafood the agency has deemed high-risk (here). Conceived as part of an administration-wide strategy to combat illegal, unreported and unregistered (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud (see 1503160016), filers would have to submit through the Automated Commercial Environment certain data elements and electronic documents in order to improve traceability of imports of the high-risk species. The importer of record would also have to maintain records on the chain of custody of their seafood imports, and obtain an International Fisheries Trade Permit for the high-risk species. Comments on the proposal are due April 5.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

The Food and Drug Administration recently launched a new International Trade Data System/Data Universal Number System (DUNS) Portal (here), it said in a recent update to its ACE webpage (here). The portal, developed with Dun & Bradstreet, allows the trade community to look up, verify, update and request new DUNS numbers for use in Automated Commercial Environment transactions. ACE gives importers and brokers the new option to uniquely identify firm information by providing a DUNS number, said FDA. The agency also posted a quick user guide (here) and step-by-step instruction guide (here) for the new portal.