The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) data transmission requirements are changing under ACE. Note that APHIS (Core) requirements differ for products governed by the Lacey Act Requirements, which went live on March 31, 2016.
Understanding ACE-related changes
APHIS is responsible for the imports of animals, biotechnology and plants. Currently, when these goods arrive at the border, paper forms and various permits and certificates are presented by the carrier to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agriculture officer.
Under ACE, most of these paper forms must be submitted electronically as a message set, in order to ensure an expedited release. However, not all paper forms are being submitted as a message set; the following forms will be scanned into the Document Imaging System (DIS):
- STAT supporting documents
- Declaration of importation (Required to accompany animal)
- Application for inspecting and dipping
- U.S. veterinary biological product permit
- Various import documents
The following forms will remain paper only:
- U.S. permit to import (includes transit)
- Foreign Government Sanitary certificate (veterinary health certificates)
- Agreement of pet bird owner (U.S. origin returning)
- Foreign meat certificate
- Phytosanitary certificate (issued by Country of Origin)
- Foreign Government Health certificates (including dip certificates, spay certificates, test charts, etc.)
For all other APHIS forms not listed above (as DIS or paper), electronic filing will require data within the entry transaction in the form of message sets. Some data elements are mandatory, while others are conditional, or even optional. The requirements for data elements are dependent on the product.
Note, none of the actual forms are being eliminated at this point. Both APHIS and CBP Agriculture reserve the right to continue to collect or to ask for original paper documents. In many cases, their request will be directed to the customs broker.
Trust the APHIS experts at Livingston
Livingston’s U.S. Customs specialists are ready to help ensure you’re ready to capture and transmit the required data elements, and to ensure you’re in compliance with APHIS requirements.
We’re ACE-ready. Our people, processes and technology are in place and ready to support existing and new clients, whatever their Partner Government Agency (PGA) or ACE needs.