CBP expands clearance program for low-risk ag shipments
The U.S. government is adapting its security inspection model based on risk profiles of shippers and their cargo for inspecting agricultural imports.
Customs and Border Protection said Friday that certain high-volume agricultural shipments at low-risk for introducing exotic plants and diseases into the United States will receive fewer inspections under the new National Agriculture Release Program (NARP).
CBP uses information about the supplier, origin of the product, transportation mode and other intelligence to develop a risk assessment of each shipment coming to the United States. The new program will also factor in agriculture-specific data in order to make determinations about compliance inspections.
NARP began prior to the creation of CBP as the Border Cargo Release program, which expedited the entry of high-volume, low-risk commodities from Mexico. NARP expands the program to include some agricultural commodities from Mexico as well as other foreign countries. Approval to include an agricultural commodity in NARP is determined by the commodity and its country of origin and is applied at ports nationwide.
To be eligible for NARP, commercial shipments in the same inspectional unit (container, truck, or vessel compartment) must contain only commodities that have been approved for NARP.
Companies or trade associations may request the addition of a commodity in the program by writing to the local CBP port director. The request must include the common and scientific name of the commodity and the country of origin.
