U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an administrative message further clarifying the import restrictions on seafood from Mexico imposed by a recent federal court decision.
Effective Aug. 24 and until further notice, the Department of Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries Service has prohibited the importation from Mexico of fish and fish products harvested by gillnets in the upper Gulf of California within the geographic range of the vaquita, an endangered porpoise. This ban covers all shrimp, curvina, sierra, and chano fish and fish products but exempts fisheries for curvina and sierra using actively deployed gear. The ban is being imposed pursuant to a July 26 decision by the Court of International Trade to grant a preliminary injunction pending final adjudication of a case seeking to force NMFS to implement a ban.
CBP is now clarifying that, effective immediately, either the NMFS certification of admissibility or the U.S. import certification of admissibility must accompany imports of fish and fish products classified under the affected HTSUS numbers for which Mexico is listed as the country of origin. Both certifications may be submitted via the Document Imaging System, e-mail, fax, or physical presentation in hardcopy form to the appropriate CBP port of entry official for review. If neither document is filed, the entire shipment will be denied entry.
CBP states that while it will permit the use of the U.S. import certification for an additional transition period to provide the trade sufficient time to fully comply with the newly-instituted procedures, it strongly urges the immediate use of the NMFS certification, which will be the only permitted form following the conclusion of the transition period.