The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, Inc. (NCBFAA) submitted comments to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which highlight certain issues it believes should be taken into consideration in drafting the final rules on prior notice of imported food and food facility registration.

On May 14, 2004, the General Accounting Office (GAO) submitted to the Homeland Security Subcommittees of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees a report entitled "Information Technology - Early Releases of Customs Trade System Operating, but Pattern of Cost and Schedule Problems Needs to be Addressed."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that it is delaying the installation of programming changes for enforcement of the Bioterrorism Act's Prior Notice (PN) requirements in its automated systems that were scheduled to become effective the morning of May 19, 2004. CBP states that these changes would have made failure to submit all mandatory PN data elements a cause for rejection by the Automated Broker Interface (ABI).

On April 8, 2004, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee amended and approved S. 2279, the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2004.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site the April 2004 Customs broker exam and answer key.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued several notices requesting written comments from the public and other federal agencies by July 6, 2004 regarding the following unchanged information collections that it intends to submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval and extension of the expiration date:

According to sources at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Phase 3 of the FDA/U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) discretionary enforcement plan for the Prior Notice (PN) requirements of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Bioterrorism Act) is to be implemented on May 19, 2004 (instead of May 13, 2004).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an administrative message announcing that full Automated Broker Interface (ABI) edits for prior notice (PN) of imported food will not be turned on until May 19, 2004 (from May 13, 2004).

On May 5, 2004, the House Ways and Means Committee amended and ordered reported (i.e., approved) H.R. 4103, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Acceleration Act of 2004. (This bill is often referred to as "AGOA III.")

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice stating that, effective May 5, 2004, the trade may transmit U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SFTA) Integrated Sourcing Initiative (ISI) claims under HTS 9999.00.84 through the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) system.