CSMS Message: 12-000276

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is seeking volunteers to participate in the document imaging trial. On April 6, 2012 the US Customs and Border Protection Program announced (via the Federal Register /Vol. 77, No. 67) the plan to conduct a National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) test concerning document imaging. During the test, certain Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) participants will be able to submit electronic images of a specific set of CBP and Participating Government Agency (PGA) forms and supporting information to CBP. Specifically, importers, and brokers, will be allowed to submit official CBP documents and specified PGA forms via the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) NMFS is one of the PGA participants to the trial. Two NOAA-NMFS forms/documents are included in this first phase of the DIS test. They are the NOAA Form 370 Fisheries Certificate of Origin and the Toothfish Pre-Approval form. Persons importing frozen, canned or processed tuna are normally required to submit a completed paper copy of the NOAA 370 form which must accompany the shipment and persons importing frozen toothfish must submit a copy of the “Toothfish Pre-Approval” form. Through the DIS trial, these documents can now be submitted as scanned images in lieu of paper documents. Filers will then need only to retain the original document. We anticipate that submitting these forms via document imaging will prove to be an effective and efficient means of eliminating the requirement for the submission of paper documents.

Persons who may be interested in participating should contact Dale Jones of the NMFS at dale.jones@noaa.gov or 301-427-8143 for further details.