NCBFAA weighs in on bioterror rules

May 20, 2004

20 May 2004

NCBFAA weighs in on bioterror rules

The following article is excerpted from the “American Shipper” edition of 20 May 2004.

The Food and Drug Administration should modify its system for monitoring the safety of food imports to reduce the administrative burden on brokers and importers that is causing shipments to be delayed, the National Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association of America said.

The trade association expressed its view as part of the public comment period for the prior notice and food facility registration rule. FDA is seeking to improve the bioterrorism security rules, … and just this week extended the comment period until July 13.

NCBFAA asked the agency to eliminate redundant information requirements, adjust import procedures to be consistent with those of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and make technological fixes to its Web-based notification system.

NCBFAA made 10 recommendations, including:

* Eliminate the duplicative requirement to file separate prior notices for each article of food, so that all the goods from the same manufacturer listed on the bill of lading can be filed at one time. Customs brokers are faced with filing multiple prior notices for the same food type if it is packaged in different-sized containers. The rules have caused the number of food entry lines to quadruple from the more than 4.7 million entry lines submitted during the 2001 fiscal year, NCBFAA noted.

* Reduce the time frames for submitting prior notice to mirror those of U.S. Customs' advance manifest reporting system. Under the current system, FDA notices must be filed four hours prior to arrival for air and rail shipments and two hours prior to arrival for truck shipments. Customs allows a shorter notification window for air shipments from destinations with shorter flying times, two hours for rail and as little as 30 minutes for some types of truck shipments.

"This current 'dual filing' system has spawned confusion as well as clerical errors in the submission of CBP and FDA data from transmitters struggling to keep a matrix of rules and timeframes straight," NCBFAA said.

Expedited procedures are particularly important for perishable foods. Produce picked in Mexico, for example, is often quickly trucked to the border before the U.S. broker has even received detailed information on the quantity or variety of the food.

FDA is taking too long to achieve its stated goal of harmonizing the two agencies' timeframes, the group added.

* Reduce the amount of duplicative basic information required for each entry filed through the Prior Notice System Interface to prevent system crashes and slow processing speeds due to limited capacity.

* The filer, not just the carrier, should be notified when an entry is refused due to inadequate prior notice. …

* Change requirements for redundant submission of contact information for registered food facilities already on file with FDA.

* Allow use of the Automated Broker Interface to resubmit or correct a rejected prior notice entry rather than just requiring such corrections through the FDA's automated system.

* FDA should allow prior notice amendments within the allowable time frames to correct submissions for product identity, quantity and arrival information without having to cancel the entry and resubmit the prior notice under a new entry.

* Prior notice should be considered adequate when a buyer using a middleman doesn't know the food facility registration number and submitted a factory name instead.


Topic(s): 
Canadian Economy & Politics
Information Source: 
Canadian News Channel
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