APHIS Expanding Commodities Acceptable for APHIS 'Core' Pilot, Says Agency Official

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s pilot to test “core” non-Lacey Act data in the Automated Commercial Environment is now live and accepting participants for filings under the agency’s Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) and Veterinary Services (VS) programs, said APHIS officials during a webinar held jointly with CBP on Dec. 9. Two other programs, Biotechnology Regulatory Services and Animal Care, are not yet ready for piloting but will be “in the future,” said Sean Blount, APHIS’ acting assistant director for Quarantine Policy, Analysis and Support.

Though CBP’s most recent list of pilot ports (here) lists frozen broccoli, equines and pet food as the only commodities accepted in the pilot, APHIS is encouraging participation from filers of a broader range of products, said Blount. Among these are vegetables, fruit, plants and cut flowers for the PPQ program; live animals, embryos and semen for the VS Live Animals program; and animal products, animal byproducts, organisms and vectors and veterinary biologics for the VS Animal Products program, he said.

The “APHIS Core” pilot joins the ongoing pilot of APHIS Lacey Act filings, all of which are, unlike some other ACE pilots, not limited in the number of participants they can take. Once APHIS’ ACE components are fully operational, nearly all information required by the agency will be filed through its partner government agency (PGA) message set. That includes, with a single exception, permit data, for which filers will enter in a permit number in their Automated Broker Interface that CBP officers will be able to use to retrieve the full permit when they need it, according to APHIS ACE liaison Cindy Walters.

A few forms, including a permit for veterinary biological products, producer and manufacturer statements, certain documentation for live animals and validation documentation, will have to be filed in CBP’s Document Imaging System (DIS), said Blount. Even once ACE is fully operational, foreign country certifications will still have to be filed on paper, he said. Those can go electronic only after other countries get on board with the single window.

APHIS is planning a series of future webinars to prepare the trade community for the Feb. 28 deadline for ACE Lacey Act filing, and beyond. A webinar on Jan. 6 will focus on Lacey Act, followed by a Jan. 13 webinar for express couriers, one on Jan. 20 for live animals, and a webinar Feb. 3 for animal products, said Blount.