To get rawhide, porkhide, or avian pet products into the United States, you have to deal with FDA, USDA, and CBP regulations. In addition to regular commercial and shipping documents you also need to provide veterinary certificate and NCIE import permit if pet chews are not plain. A lot can be said about the process, but the purpose of this article is to focus on CBP Agriculture process. Agriculture Specialists currently work under Department of Homeland Security, yet mostly deal with enforcement of regulatory statutes of the United States Department of Agriculture. When customs broker transmits an entry (for example using HTS 0511.99.2000), it goes on automatic hold and EDR (Entry Documents Required). Agriculture Specialist reviews the entry and then makes a decision (to release, to examine, to request further information). As a guidance for appropriate decision, Agriculture Specialists use the Animal Product Manual. Inspector in one of the ports provided a copy of the relevant page from this manual (see left image to your top right). Basically, it is a replication of USDA GUIDELINES FOR IMPORTATION #1119, only in a different format. Sometimes events do not turn out as planned. For example, foreign government veterinarian did not lists porcine…
Published April 25, 2007 by Yuri Starikov
