View Rule

Statement of Need: Under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, importation of fish products taken in violation of foreign law and regulation is prohibited. To enforce this prohibition, NMFS has implemented the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) (81 FR 88975, December 9, 2016) which requires U.S. importers to report on the origin of fish products and to keep supply chain records. The Commerce Trusted Trader Program was recommended by an interagency working group to reduce the burden of SIMP compliance for importers with secure supply chains by reducing reporting requirements for entry into U.S. commerce and allowing more flexible approaches to retaining supply chain records.

Summary of the Legal Basis: Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

Alternatives: SIMP is aimed at preventing the infiltration of illegal fish products into the U.S. market. Alternatives to reduce the reporting and recordkeeping burden for U.S. importers were considered during the course of that rulemaking. Collecting less information at import about the origin of products would increase the likelihood of illegal products entering the supply chain. However, working with individual traders to secure the supply chain will be an economical approach to ensure that illegal products are precluded and records will be kept as needed for post-entry audits. The Commerce Trusted Trader Program is designed to allow those entities who demonstrate a robust traceability and internal control system, and submit to annual third-party audits of their system, to benefit from reduced reporting requirements of SIMP species at the time of entry as well as flexibility in how they maintain the complete chain of custody records within their secure supply chain.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits: The Commerce Trusted Trader Program, as proposed, will result in an estimated industry-wide savings between $0.50 and $1.21 million annually. Anticipated costs are minimal and include a one-time application fee of $30.00 and associated labor costs of developing application materials. Commerce Trusted Traders will benefit from the reduced reporting costs at entry and reduced recordkeeping costs due to flexibility in archiving chain of custody records, but incur costs to perform an annual third-party audit of adherence to their Compliance Plan.

Risks: While there is no risk of not implementing a Commerce Trusted Trader Program, not doing so would deprive industry of potentially significant cost savings for an existing regulatory program.