NOAA Releases List of Mexican Officials Allowed to Verify Seafood Shipment
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration posted a list of 33 Mexican government officials that can verify that seafood from Mexico was not caught illegally using gillnets, CBP said in a CSMS message. Last summer, the Court of International Trade granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting imports of Mexican fish that might threaten the endangered vaquita porpoise (see 1807260039). The National Marine Fisheries Service requires that all Mexican-origin shrimp, fish and fish products include a “Certification of Admissibility” that contains the signature of one of the listed officials. "If a 'Certification of Admissibility' is validated by an official who is not on the May 31, 2019 Designated Officials List, the shipment will be refused entry," CBP said. "The submission of the 'Certification of Admissibility' may be done through electronic transfer into ACE DIS using DIS Code 'NM23', email, fax, or in paper to the CBP port of entry."
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The agency also described the disclaim process. "Only processed commodities filed under HTS codes 2309.90 or 2309.10, or HTS code 0511.99.3060 may be exempt from the 'Certification of Admissibility' requirement if a valid disclaim is submitted with the entry," CBP said. "A valid disclaim statement 'the commodity under HTS (list the applicable HTS code) does not contain shrimp or fish products' must accompany the entry via ACE DIS, email, fax, or paper. All regulated commodities that do not fall under disclaim rules must provide the 'Certification of Admissibility' to meet NMFS requirements or the entire entry is to be refused entry."