APHIS Working to Ramp Up Certs, Sending Warning Letters as ACE Organic Enforcement Begins

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Just weeks after the Agricultural Marketing Service's rules on import filing and certification requirements for organic goods took effect March 19 (see 2402270052), the agency is still facing the problem of "many uncertified importers," but "we're making good progress," said Jennifer Tucker, deputy director of USDA's National Organics Program, on April 16.

Since the rule was published in January (see 2301180051), AMS has sent 450 letters to uncertified importers "telling them they've got to get certified." Some have written back saying they're in the process, while others have said they don't need to, to which AMS has responded, "you do, and here's why," Tucker said.

"We have seen a real uptick, where people finally made it through the grieving process, and now accept it, and are getting certified," said Tucker, speaking at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference. The rush is causing a backlog, and "if you're working with an uncertified importer right now, right now, depending on the complexity of backlog, it is taking two to six months," she said.

More than 22,000 electronic import certificates have been issued as of April 5 since the agency began accepting them "last fall as a pilot," Tucker said. There are about 7,000 active in the USDA database, and 2,500 have been entered into ACE, she said. Those are mostly "land-based from Canada and Mexico."

Tucker said "about 75% or more" of the electronic import certificates "appear valid to date."

The number of items that don't have a certificate or have an invalid code has also gone down, Tucker said. These certificates are being put under a 999 code that the agency will eventually phase out but is at least six months from doing that, she said.

Certifiers have been taking from one to seven days to issue import certificates, depending on "certifier system and experience," Tucker said. While Tucker acknowledged that seven days can cause an importer to lose a produce shipment, "right now it's a little bit of a balancing [act] as certifiers figure out their systems, because they know they can get kicked out of the system if they issue a certificate for non-authentic organic products," she said.

AMS has been accepting a "999" placeholder code for products that are organic but don't have an import certificate. "That's right now a safety valve to enable an on-ramp here," Tucker said. Over time, the number of "999" codes being submitted is going down, and the agency will eventually phase out the code, but not for at least six months. "This is a big rule for a big community," she said.

One of the challenges that the USDA has had is that certifiers aren't always making sure that when they generate the certificate they're confirming whether the exporter is certified. Some importers have gotten warning letters from the agency because the exporter isn't marked as certified, Tucker said.

The USDA is also rapidly following up with exporters both certified and uncertified for codes that aren't compliant and are taking a "progressive enforcement" approach, Tucker said.