CBP Expects PGA Message Set to Begin in Fall

CBP hopes to begin inviting trade members to participate in the first pilot of the Participating Government Agency (PGA) this fall with the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), said Susan Dyszel, International Trade Data System (ITDS) Team Lead at CBP. Dyszel was speaking at the Import Compliance and Enforcement conference in Washington June 20.

(The PGA message set will allow brokers to file FSIS information to the Public Health Information System (PHIS) directly through ACE. See ITT's Online Archives 12043006 for FSIS's notice that PHIS filing for importers would begin May 29.)

Dyszel, who described the PGA message set as "the big one," said there will probably be a Webinar in July to outline use of the PGA message set by importers and that notification is coming soon.

(The PGA Message Set creates a single, harmonized set of information that will be collected electronically from international traders by CBP on behalf of the PGAs, thereby allowing CBP and the PGAs to make decisions about what cargo can come into the U.S. without the myriad of paper forms currently required.)