[Nhcoll-l] ACE entry situation

[Ellen Paul]

I am pleased to report that we are able to recommend to you the customs 
brokerage of John S. Connor, Inc. in Baltimore for handling your ACE 
entry and APHIS core process.

They will, when the USFWS joins the system, handle that too.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.jsconnor.com_&d=CwICaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=Qk8dSMlohow-RhyPr_A3Q9HZehFdAd1vtybzzAoSEuo&s=G-EqV7mnA5c9cxByMVZoMBzLxNAG8mOEIF3sVEi2nB0&e= 

They can handle the electronic filings nationwide.

You will need to give them a power-of-attorney. That form and other 
documents are here:

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.jsconnor.com_content_power-2Dattorney&d=CwICaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=Qk8dSMlohow-RhyPr_A3Q9HZehFdAd1vtybzzAoSEuo&s=Y1YIPqZDBqUCuNiOyxup7ip-5iKaswO3hhilN9-cc0w&e= 

They have handled imports for the NMNH so they are familiar with imports 
of wildlife research material.

Further, the Ornithological Council will be working with them to assure 
that they have/develop the expertise necessary to "translate" what you 
do into the correct data for ACE, APHIS, and USFWS modules. They are 
working on a proposal for the entire community and I will share that 
with you as soon as I have it. Obviously, you are not obligated to use 
this company and I know some of your universities and institutions have 
established relationships with brokers. However, in addition to what we 
hope will be competitive pricing, you will have the advantage of working 
with a company that has or will develop special knowledge of the nature 
of your imports. Having seen the APHIS Core, I can personally say that 
this specialized knowledge is essential to avoid the inadvertent entry 
of data that is incorrect and could cause problems. It is exceptionally 
complex. I expect that the USFWS Core will be equally complex.

Note that I have said that the OC's limited capacity is such that we 
really can't help members of the other taxonomic societies. That remains 
true on a one-to-one basis but not true as to our working relationship 
with John S. Connor. Some of you have taken the time to write to thank 
me for trying to get this problem sorted out and you have no idea how 
grateful I am to you. It is very rare that anyone takes the time to say 
thanks. I really, really appreciate it.

The OC is a tiny organization - I'm the only staffer - and we have a 
tiny budget that is always stretch thin. If any of you should want to 
help support our work, we have a paypal account button on our homepage: 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__naturalhistory.si.edu_BIRDNET_&d=CwICaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=Qk8dSMlohow-RhyPr_A3Q9HZehFdAd1vtybzzAoSEuo&s=Ry5289H8jvadzXuv91CrnuRMO8o_bCD3w6dYR7jLvms&e= 

I encourage all of you to develop internal systems that will help you to 
reduce the overall costs of these entries by "bundling" your exports and 
imports to a particular location. So, for instance, if the bird dept. is 
sending something to a particular museum, contact the other depts. and 
ask if anyone else is also sending things to that museum in the near 
future. Ditto for imports. I know this isn't all that likely except for 
the larger institutions, but it could happen, so why not give it a shot?

In terms of long-range forecast for this situation - the Administration 
wants it to be fully operational by the end of the year. Based on the 
concerns raised by the commercial importing community, I have a feeling 
that CBP and the other agencies realize that they need to be reasonable 
and realistic, The silver lining of the fact that we are in the middle 
of this dreadful election season is the political reality that the 
Administration will start to check-out in a few weeks. Top dogs will be 
leaving, everyone down the chain of command will relax a bit because 
after all - a new boss is coming. It is not unheard of for new 
Administrations to pull the plug entirely on ongoing initiatives, or 
neglect them to the point that they die on the vine. That's particularly 
true in the case of regime change. Add to that the fact that the CBP 
contacts we have been talking to (now those are people who deserve huge 
thanks!) have heard us and realize we need time to adjust to this whole 
thing. They've been talking to their field ops people and so for the 
coming months, you may not have a problem with your traditional 
"show-up-and-declare" method. This is more the case because the USFWS 
isn't in the ACE single window system yet so they have to let you do 
that the traditional way and in that case, what is the point of making 
you go through the ACE system for customs and APHIS? Their own rules 
prohibit "hybrid entries."

I'll be out of the country from 8/20 - 9/17 so if you have any questions 
or concerns, speak now or wait a month!

Ellen
-- 
Ellen Paul

Ellen Paul

Executive Director

Ornithological Council <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nmnh.si.edu_BIRDNET&d=CwICaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=Qk8dSMlohow-RhyPr_A3Q9HZehFdAd1vtybzzAoSEuo&s=dmBx3YnfIsj2suxC8HicEn8E__S-S9v1TY_UBHoeNHQ&e= >

Phone (301) 986 8568

Providing Scientific Information about Birds