Government Shutdown Effects on Shipping Related Agencies

Agency/Department

Effect

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

Website unavailable. Review or authorization of notifications or permits for the importation, interstate movement or field release of genetically engineered organisms will be delayed.

Client Representative Offices

Closed. These are the people who support systems such as the Automated Broker Interface (ABI). There is currently no systems support and the Harmonized Tariff is still unavailable.

Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT)

Validations not being processed.

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

97% of staff furloughed and offices are closed. Expect severe delays.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

65% of staff furloughed. Import operations remain open but with limited resources. Expect severe delays.

Fish & Wildlife

The department is open although paper declarations 3-177 must be filed manually. The automatic payment system cannot be used and manual checks must be issued.

Federal Maritime Commission (FMC)

FMC has suspended operations and it is expected that its systems will be unavailable to accept electronic filings for service contracts, NVOCC Service Arrangements (NSAs), and service contract and NSA amendments during the shutdown.

Steel Licenses

The online Steel Licensing system has been temporarily suspended and computer system closed. Entries are being processed with the temporary license number “STEELX103”.

Trade Symposium (East Coast)

This event is planned for October 24^th and 25^th. There has been no word confirming that this event has been canceled yet.

U.S. Customs

Slow down expected. Any filings requiring manual interaction with CBP will be severely disrupted. Bond applications, licensing, FDA refusal processing all delayed.

The Centers of Excellence and Expertise are open with delayed service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Website is down and import notifications and permits are not being reviewed.

U.S. International Trade Commission

All USITC web and network-based services are currently unavailable, including:

-EDIS

-DataWeb

-The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (although some info is available through Customs Info Global Data Mining here: http://hub.am/17oA99a

-Dropbox

-Phone lines

-Email Communications

AD/CVD duty proceeding deadlines will be extended by the number of days the shutdown lasts