CBP, PGAs Outline Government Shutdown Plans

Lawmakers were unable to reach a federal government funding deal on Dec. 21, resulting in a shutdown that began at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 22 and has no clear end in sight. CBP held a conference call on Dec. 21 with members of the trade to discuss the agency's operations during a shutdown, according to the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. CBP will have conference calls during the shutdown and is preparing a CSMS message to detail its plans, the NCBFAA said.

The NCBFAA said "CBP is working with other agencies to have the flow of trade as close to normal as possible." While CBP's "management and leadership will continue to work," the "client representatives and others will not. In the case of an ACE outage, client representatives will be recalled." The ports "ports will be staffed as normal," CBP said on the call. "Trucks will be processed, air cargo and hubs will be working and trains and vessels will all be processed."

A CBP official from the Miami International Airport issued an information notice on Dec. 21 that said the government shutdown won't affect the hours of the cargo clearance center. The hours of operation in Miami and elsewhere will be reduced due to the holidays, as planned. "As some PGA's will not be funded, CBP will use their discretion at the border to keep cargo flowing," said the NCBFAA. "Centers of Excellence and Expertise will be open as normal with drawback and liquidations continuing under normal circumstances. As for the quota desk, it will be operational. The Quota Branch Chief and an additional staff member will be in the office."

The NCBFAA also said all "all U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) port investigators would be furloughed." The "shipments that have been targeted, but not arrived for examination, would be released, unless CBP or another PGA has interest or an imminent health and safety issue has been identified," the trade group said. "Decisions on whether to release shipments that have been detained because they failed field screening and may be violative will be made on a case by case basis." The Environment Protection Agency, Fish and Wildlife Service and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will continue border operations. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service personnel won't be available for trade processing, though customs operations under the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration will continue, said the NCBFAA.

The import operations for the Food and Drug Administration, the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Agricultural Marketing Service will mostly continue during the shutdown, the NCBFAA said. As for AMS inspection services, the results will be "electronically transmitted to their Compliance Enforcement Management System (CEMS)," said the association. "CEMS is the system that automatically reconciles entries which pass inspection and meet 8e import requirements and returns a 'May Proceed' message back to ACE should an entry meet import requirements. As with the last government shutdown, entries which electronically reconcile via CEMS will continue to do so with a 'May Proceed' message back to ACE as long as transmissions of inspection certificates are submitted by inspection personnel and everything reconciles."

The International Trade Commission also updated its list of activities likely to be disrupted by the shutdown. Those include investigative activities, "maintenance of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S., technical assistance to the U.S. Trade Representative and Congress, as well as all other government functions other than those directly supporting active litigation to which the USITC or the United States is a party," it said.

Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the notice from CBP Miami.