24 August 2004

Prior notice compliance continues to improve, says FDA

The following article is excerpted from the 23 August 2004 edition of “American Shipper”.

Companies are submitting about 160,000 prior notices, up from about 140,000 in January and February, of import food shipments per week as required by the 2002 Bioterrorism Act, according to the latest figures through mid-July from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The agency said it expects prior notices to increase later this year when imports of fresh fruits and vegetables are expected to increase after the summer months and estimates it will process more than 8 million notices in the first year of the rule.

Since tougher enforcement began in June compliance has substantially improved, with only 0.5 percent of imports arriving without any prior notice information and 75 percent having complete prior notice data. Earlier this year about 50 percent of entries were incomplete.

The prior notice requirement went into effect Dec. 12, 2003 and the two agencies began full enforcement Aug. 13 after several months educating industry and phasing in penalties.

Importers are properly filling in importer, consignee, product description, quantity, product code and country of origin fields as well as air, rail and sea carrier information. Information on submitters, arrivals and cargo owners is more than 90 percent complete, FDA said. Completion of facility registration numbers and bill of ladings is lower, with bill of lading submittals in the mid-50 percent range for rail and sea shipments.

The FDA said failure to submit a registration number for products is a continuing concern. Late filing is still a concern too, with almost 7 percent of submissions through ACS (8,965) considered untimely.

The agency said importers and brokers still need to tighten the accuracy of data submitted. Although the consignee field is usually filled in, for example, about 2 percent of consignee data is labeled as "unknown" or lists consolidated consignees and not the ultimate consignee as required.

About 86 percent of the 4.6 million prior notices have been filed through Customs and Border Protection's trade data computer system via the Automated Broker Interface, 13 percent through the FDA's Web-based Prior Notice System Interface and 1 percent through a new interface dubbed "mini ABI" that allow importers to use the ABI system to file submissions that do not require electronic submittal to Customs….