The U.S. Department of Agriculture is issuing a final rule amending its regulations on its Market Access Program to eliminate the five-year limit on participation by branded products. Other updates in the final rule will bring the operation of the export promotion program “into conformance with the requirements in the Uniform Guidance,” USDA said. “Additional changes, such as the flexibility to announce program funding opportunities on the Grants.gov portal and edits to bring more consistency between the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program, are desirable to bring the administration of the program into line with current best practices in Federal grant-making.” The final rule takes effect Jan. 13.
CBP plans to begin registration for the 2020 Trade Symposium on Jan. 9, it said in a tweet. The symposium is scheduled for March 10-11 in Anaheim, California. “The agenda, venue details, and registration link are coming soon,” it said.
Starting Jan. 1, “'X - No Unit Required' is not an acceptable Unit of Measure in the Automated Export System for most commodity classification codes,” the Census Bureau said in a Dec. 31 email. “There will be no grace period for this change.,” it said. The agency said in the email that “the Schedule B, Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), and HTS Codes That Are Not Valid for AES tables have been updated to accept the changes to the January 1, 2020 codes.”
The Government Accountability Office and the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General each released a report on Dec. 17 that noted various issues within CBP's drawback program. The GAO's report suggested that CBP work to flag excessive export submissions and “establish a reliable system of record for proof of export,” among other things. The DHS IG report found that CBP “lacked appropriate documentation retention periods to ensure importers and claimants maintained support for drawback transactions” and didn't scrutinize prior drawback claims enough for claimants during 2011 to 2018.
Automated Export System and Electronic Export Information filings are not yet considered proof of exportation for drawback purposes, according to a Dec. 9 alert from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. NCBFAA said it received the “advice” from CBP after “many inquiries and some confusion” about proof of export rules.
The Commerce Department is seeking comments on proposed revisions relating to the Automated Export System, the Census Bureau said in a notice. The revisions include provisions for the “early release of preliminary steel mill import statistics” and plans by both Census and the Bureau of Industry and Security to draft a notice of proposed rulemaking to clarify the responsibilities of parties in routed and standard export transactions (see 1907100053). Census said it is “working with BIS to receive concurrence in order to publish the NPRM." Census also said the two agencies aim to publish the NPRMs “around the same time” to “allow the trade community an opportunity to review the proposed requirements as they relate to both filing and licensing responsibilities.” Census said its draft rule “has received concurrence” from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Comments are due by Feb. 7, 2020.
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing new reporting requirements for 19 chemicals under significant new use rules. The proposed SNURs would require notification to EPA at least 90 days in advance of a new use by importers, manufacturers or processors. Importers of chemicals subject to these proposed SNURs would need to certify their compliance with the SNUR requirements should these proposed rules be finalized, EPA said. Exporters of these chemicals would become subject to export notification requirements. Comments on the proposed SNURs are due Jan. 6.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a final rule clarifying requirements for reporting exports of beef and pork under the Export Sales Reporting Program, USDA said Nov. 25. The rule clarifies that certain “muscle cuts” of beef and pork include “whole carcasses, whether divided in half or further subdivided into individual primals, sub-primals, or fabricated cuts, with or without bone.” The total weight reported may include “minor nonreportable items,” USDA said. Meats removed during the “conversion of an animal to a carcass” are not muscle cuts, “nor are items sold as bones practically free of meat,” the agency said.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is issuing a final rule listing the meltwater lednian stonefly (Lednia tumana) and the western glacier stonefly (Zapada glacier), two aquatic insect species from Montana and Canada, and Montana and Wyoming, respectively, as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Though the agency recently ended blanket import-export restrictions for threatened species, FWS is including a 4(d) rule for these species that prohibits importation and exportation without a permit. New import and export restrictions set by the agency’s final rule take effect Dec. 23.
The Food and Drug Administration on Nov. 14 issued a new guidance document on procedures for reviewing FDA denials of export certificates for medical devices. The guidance document details the process for exporters to correct deficiencies that caused FDA to deny issuance of a Certificate to Foreign Government (CFG) for a device, as well as for requesting agency review of denials.