The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service recently clarified procedures for exporters to obtain radiation letters, according to the North American Meat Institute. In communications with Meat Institute staff, FAS said requests for radiation letters should include the U.S. company name, address, phone number and point of contact name. “Requests also should stipulate the agricultural commodity being exported, the export destination and the number of radiation letters needed -- the limit is 50,” the trade group said. Exporters are required to submit requests on company letterhead to the FAS Processed Products and Technical Regulations division, which will then issue the radiation letters via UPS for agricultural food and feed products only, the North American Meat Institute said. Companies are required to send a UPS label along with their requests, it said.
CBP is planning to create a “best practices” guide for the auto export trade industry “about the documentation and submission of title validation under section 192,” according to a letter from CBP provided by the Los Angeles Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association. CBP is also planning to hold a question-and-answer session “to address any export concerns,” specifically relating to the “current Auto Export process” in the Los Angeles/Long Beach port, the letter said. The session is designed to help CBP gather a best-practices guide to “expedite trade while allowing CBP to focus on deterring the export of stolen” cars, according to the letter. The meeting is scheduled for May 21 in Long Beach, California.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet May 30 in Laredo, Texas, CBP said in a notice.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is proposing to amend its U.S. Standards for Grades of Apples to remove smooth net-like russeting as a grade-determining factor in the U.S. Extra Fancy, U.S. Fancy and U.S. No. 1 grades for Fuji apples, it said. The proposal also would remove obsolete references to the location where color standards may be examined and purchased, AMS said. The changes also would affect the grade requirements under the Export Apple Act.
Automated Export System Electronic Export Information filers should take steps to verify the correct port of export code, the Census Bureau said in a blog post. "First, verify the port of export code that you are reporting in the AES is valid for the mode of transportation of your shipment," the agency said. "Appendix D of the Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR) on the CBP’s website is an important resource, and it provides a full list of export port codes as well as valid modes of transportation for each port." It's also considered a "best practice to contact the carrier of your shipment and verify the port of export information." Fatal errors can be resolved by correcting and retransmitting the export filing, it said.
The Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements was updated to reflect the State Department's changes involving International Traffic in Arms Regulations for U.S. government transfers (see 1904180024), CBP said in a CSMS message.
The Food Safety Inspection Service will soon begin collecting fees for export certificates it issues through the Public Health Information System Export Component, it said in a notice. Effective June 1, FSIS will collect a $4.01 application fee for applications submitted through the system. FSIS continues to incrementally add countries to the system, which allows exporters to electronically submit, track and manage their export applications, FSIS said. The initial deployment of the PHIS Export Component in June 2018 covered certificates for Afghanistan, Andorra, Bahamas, Bolivia, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cook Islands, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mozambique, San Marino, Tanzania, Uganda; additional countries added as of May 20 include Angola, Antarctica, Aruba, Bhutan, Botswana, Bouvett Island, Brunei Darussalam, Christmas Island, Comoros, Eritrea, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, French Southern and Antarctic Islands, Greenland, Guernsey, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Isle of Man, Jersey, Lesotho, Liechtenstein and Vietnam.
CBP denied a request from MDT Armor Corp. that the company's temporary importation bond (TIB) be extended after it exported a vehicle beyond the TIB expiration date. CBP said in the April 9 ruling that it found MDT's explanations to be lacking. Panmet Group, an agent working on behalf of MDT, told CBP that it did submit a timely TIB extension request and "was under the impression that the request had been processed." CBP's ruling only applies to the TIB extension request and not liquidated damages, the agency said.
The Census Bureau added a new port of export code to the Automated Export System, the agency said in an April 17 email. The new code is 5589 for Meacham International Airport in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Automated Export System Downtime Policy was deactivated on April 19 and ACE AESDirect is now operational following the unscheduled ACE AES outage on April 18, the Census Bureau said in an April 19 email. "As a reminder, you are REQUIRED to file all Electronic Export Information (EEI) for shipments that were exported under the AES Downtime Policy, along with any new AES transactions, to receive an Internal Transaction Number (ITN)," it said. The agency also asked filers not to submit shipment more than once. "Due to the high volume of shipments that are being processed at this time, please be patient in obtaining an AES response message. Do not submit shipments more than once," Census said in another email.