The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been working on several initiatives to improve security at all major U.S. ports and border crossings. Over time, these initiatives will drastically change how U.S. shipments are imported and exported.
The initiatives are being phased in between October and January. The first initiative is effective Friday, October 1, 2004.
Reimer Express Lines Ltd., and parent Roadway Express Inc. are prepared for these initiatives! We are C-TPAT, PIP and FAST approved. We have worked with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to help develop these initiatives, and we are participating in pilot programs prior to their rollout dates.
These security initiatives will change the way U.S. customs brokers have done business for years. Below are answers to questions you may have.
What do you need to know to avoid delays on export shipments to the U.S.?
Why should you select Reimer Express?
What is affected by the new FDA regulations?
What is Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and what are the benefits?
What changes are being implemented for U.S. customs brokers and those classified as the importer of record by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)?
What do you need to know to avoid delays on export shipments to the U.S.?
Why should you select Reimer Express?
To quote, book, or schedule a pickup for your international shipments call 1-800-INTL-REX (468-5739).
Who is affected by the new FDA regulations?
To protect the U.S. against wide-spread bioterrorism events, the FDA requires any owner, operator or agent in charge of domestic or foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food for human or animal consumption in the United States to register the facility with the FDA. Any new facility and foreign facilities that plan to export food or food products to the U.S. should register as soon as possible.
Domestic U.S. facilities are required to register whether or not food from the facility enters U.S. interstate commerce.
The U.S. federal government can bring a civil action against those U.S. facilities that fail to register.
If a foreign facility fails to register, food from that facility is subject to being held at the border point of entry.
What is Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and what are the benefits?
ACE will provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) the capability to access data throughout the international supply chain to anticipate, identify, track and intercept high-risk shipments by providing a fully automated information system to collect, process and analyze commercial import and export data. The automation between CBP and the trade community will provide national processing as the CBP moves away from port-by-port processing. By providing the right information and tools, ACE will also serve as a critical element for trade enforcement and in preventing cargo from becoming an instrument of terrorism.
ACE benefits include:
- Enhanced border security.
- Increased access to data.
- Automated electronic manifest system.
- Support increased flow of trade.
- Simplified and expedited cargo release.
- Online access to data for government agencies.
Carriers will be able to file electronic manifests for the first time. That means trucks will cross the border faster because the information needed for their cargoes to clear Customs will arrive electronically before they do. Reimer Express and its parent Roadway Express will be filing electronic manifests as part of an ACE pilot program scheduled to begin in November 2004.
For additional information contact your local Reimer Express Terminal or the Customs and Border Protection web site for more information.
