Great Lakes Customs Brokerage, Inc. | Newsletter

September 2003 - Issue 01

In an effort to keep you up to date on new regulations that are developing, we will be sending out a series of e-mails and posting notices here on our website, over the next several months. We encourage you to read this notice in its entirety, as many import regulations and procedures will be changing throughout the year.

U.S. Customs and FDA have both delayed publishing of their proposed Advanced Filing Rules. Both agencies expect to publish their final rules sometime in October.

Department of Homeland Security Launches “One Face at the Border”

The establishment of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) within the Department of Homeland Security brought together employees from three departments of government. Inside CBP, three different inspector occupations—the Customs Inspector, the Immigration Inspector and the Agriculture Inspector—joined together at U.S. ports of entry. The new CBP Officer position will unify the duties and responsibilities of these occupations, creating a corps of officers who will present “one face at the border” to travelers and the importing community. For the first time in U.S. history, people and goods arriving at American ports of entry are greeted by one single agency with one unified goal: to facilitate legitimate trade and travel while utilizing all of the resources at their disposal to protect and defend the United States from terrorism.

An extensive training course has been developed to support the integration and unification of the CBP workforce. However, due to the complexities of certain kinds of agricultural products a second position, the CBP Agriculture Specialist, is being established. The CBP Agriculture Specialist will serve as the agricultural expert at ports of entry with large volumes of cargo importation, particularly in those hubs where the agriculture industry imports much of the flowers, fruits, vegetables and meat that are used by the American consumer. They will apply their specialized backgrounds to support the CBP Officer in complex cargo examinations, pre-arrival risk analysis and will be responsible for seizing, safeguarding, destroying or re-exporting cargo. The Specialists will coordinate with USDA who will continue to manage commodity pre-clearance operations, issue export certifications, identify pests and oversee Plant Inspection Stations as well as fumigations and cold treatments.

The first CBP Officers will be hired in late September and begin training in October 2003. In the spring of 2004, the current Customs, Immigration and Agricultural Inspectors will be converted to new Officer positions and begin cross-training in all new aspects of their job.

ALERT

CHANGE IN POLICY

CANADIAN MEAT AND MEAT BY-PRODUCTS

IMPORT PERMITS FOR CERTAIN RUMINANT PRODUCTS FROM CANADA WILL NOW BE ISSUED

Revised September 2, 2003

After a thorough scientific analysis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided to begin accepting applications for import permits for certain ruminant-derived products from Canada, including:

· Meat from caribou and musk ox harvested in the Canadian territory of Nunavut

· Animal feeds, including milk replacer and pet food, and feed ingredients containing non-ruminant materials

· Tallow for non-animal feed use

· Vaccines for Veterinary Medical use (permit to be issued by the Center for Veterinary Biologics)

· Finished pet chews made from ruminant bone and ligaments

· Fresh or frozen bovine liver

· Veal (including carcasses) from calves 36 weeks of age or under

· Sheep or goat meat, boneless, fresh or frozen, from animals under 12 months of age

· Cervidae (deer, elk, moose, caribou) meat from domesticated farmed animals, processed in a slaughterhouse

· Meat products from cervidae harvested on a game farm or similar facility

· Bovine meat, boneless, fresh or frozen, from animals under 30 months of age

· Canadian processed meat products (e.g. gravy, beef extract, frozen entrees containing beef, pepperoni, roast beef, beef pastrami, corned beef) produced from beef originating in a BSE free country or region (e.g., United States, New Zealand, Australia)

The meat products listed above may be imported with a “United States Veterinary Permit for Importation and Transportation of Controlled Material.” The application can be completed on line at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/forms/index.html or can be downloaded from http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ncie

For more information on the permitting process, click on http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/2003/08/qa0281.htm or call USDA/APHIS at 301-734-3277.

Until further notice, all shipments of the above products will be restricted to certain border crossings. To access a list of approved ports and hours of availability click the following link: ports and hours

Shipments presented at U.S.-Canadian border locations NOT included on the list in the above link will be refused entry and directed to the nearest location on the list. NOTE: Shipments moving by air, mail, or courier (FedEx, DHL, etc.) are NOT limited to the locations on the list.

All requirements of the import permit must be met for the commodity to be enterable. If the shipment does not meet permit requirements, such as being accompanied by a Canadian government certificate of FSIS Form 9540-1, the shipment will be refused entry.

Port of Buffalo participation in the National Finance Center (NFC) Centralization Project for Continuous Bonds

In an effort to establish a more efficient and effective bond program for the CBP, the Customs Continuous bond program will be centralized at the National Finance Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Previously, continuous bonds were filed at the local Port level).

This centralization will include the filing, approval and maintenance of all Continuous Transaction Bonds. Pilots for the new program are being used to establish national guidelines and are currently underway in the ports of St. Albans, Vt., Chicago, Il. and Buffalo, NY.

To alleviate potential problems, the Customs-NFC will be returning a copy of the approved CF 301 (Continuous Bond) with the assigned bond number via fax to each, the filer, principal and surety company. Great Lakes must supply Customs with a contact name and fax number of the client requesting a continuous bond, on the Bond application, in order to comply with this requirement.


		September 2003

		back to Information Notices


This Notice contains important information about U.S. Customs (CBP) & FDA's proposed requirement for filing importing information in advance of freight arriving at the border, Department of Homeland Security's changes at the border, Changes for Canadian Meat products and The CBP's Bond centralization project.

More information will be forwarded as CBP & FDA finalize their plans for their programs.

If you have further questions or would like others added to our e-mail notification list, please contact your Great Lakes Customs Brokerage Customer Service Team at 716-215-9000.

Team A
(716) 215-9245

Team M
(716) 215-9255

Team Q
(716) 215-9245

Team S
(716) 215-9263

CHANGE IN POLICY

Revised September 2, 2003

Description: Great Lakes Customs Brokerage, Inc. is A full service U.S. Customs broker and freight forwarder providing cost-effective solutions to cross-border distribution needs.