The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that the APHIS Core program has been delayed until January of 2021. Additionally, a CSMS message was released by U.S. Customs and Broder Protection. There has not yet been a notice in the Federal Register. This move was prompted by stakeholder concern over readiness amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Core Message Set is the suite of electronically submitted data that will soon be required on customs entries that include APHIS-regulated plants, plant products, and animal products. We strongly encourage our clients to prepare for this change now by viewing the webinar series on the USDA website.
Willson International has been preparing for this release for the past two years through research and changes to our electronic platforms of shipment transmission. We have now launched a new “Help†section on our ShipCheck platform. In this section, we have posted resources for APHIS CORE including Frequently Asked Questions and implementation guides.
APHIS has flagged more than 2,000 HTS subheadings that may contain APHIS-regulated products. This means that even if your company does not import articles of an agricultural nature, your products may be flagged. If that is the case, you may be contacted for approval to disclaim that requirement at the time of entry.
We strongly recommend that companies impacted by this change continue to gather the required data elements in advance of the transition.