From: Paul Wegener [pwegener@mgmaher.com]
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 4:17 PM
To: Food & Drug
Subject: DOCKET NO. 2002N-0276



-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Wegener [mailto:pwegener@mgmaher.com]
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 3:16 PM
To: Food & Drug

To: Howard Hodes; Pat Schafer
Subject: FOOD & DRUG

First of all, I must commend both of you on your composure under the
circumstances. I think we all realized there were more questions than
answers.  I am jotting down a few that I think really have to be resolved
and quickly.

CATAIR - 	I have just learned on November 6th that there ha been two
Administrative Messages - Administrative Message 03-2619 of November 4,
2003, an Administrative Message 03-2625 of November 5, 2003, dealing with
the Food & Drug ADM/and BTA changes. Of course, this gives the programming
community approximately 27 working days to do the programming.

The data elements that will be required through the ABI and ACS systems are
crucial to the working of the system.

Another area that needs clarification is the definition "holding food and
food products".  I agree without any question a commercial warehouse food
distribution center like in Roberts, Louisiana built by Wal Mart, that
distribute all their food, both refrigerated and non-refrigerated throughout
the South, definitely needs to register and obtain a Registration Number.
However, I strongly disagree that steamship terminals, rail terminals, truck
line terminals and any other service that merely expedites the movement of
cargo to its contracted destination do not have to register.  They are
simply facilitators and are not in the business of holding food products for
commercial use.

Scheduling - train arrivals, vessel arrivals, equipment shortages can all
cause a temporary hold on sea containers that happen to have food products
in them.  I do not think this was the intent of Congress and it is an
over-kill by Food & Drug Administration to require their registration.

Foreign Registration - This is good and we already do this in all electronic
transmissions, identifying the seller of the goods for other Customs
purposes.  Another question is who is the most efficient person and what
liability does a registrar or a company offering registration services taken
on.  As Customs Brokers we are allowed to register as an agent for a foreign
seller or manufacturer.  This is covered in the Customs Regulations under
Sec. 141.18(a)
and allows the Customs Broker to simply receive Service of Process and be
their conduit to any subpoenas and questions for the foreign supplier.

Apparently there is a cottage industry popping up and I have heard that the
cost of registration is well over $1000.00 annually by these companies.
Again, I do not think this was the intent of Congress imposing financial
hardships on the foreign producers.  I thought the easy solution would be to
have the importer register their foreign suppliers.  My opinion is this can
work in many cases, but when you have a supplier selling to many importers
there may be trade secrets and other competitive information that could be
gleaned by the registrar.  I feel if the foreign principal registers in one
of the 25 Districts in the United States,the registrar will not have access
to other information.

I heard something in the presentation about having a 24 hour notification
system in case there is an emergency.  We would like to discuss this more
and determine if this is really necessary.  I think New Orleans has a
special interest in Coffee and there are several issues that have to be
resolved.  There was some discussion at the presentation but we could not
communicate with the people conducting the meting on requirements for
growers.  Everyone in the coffee business knows that basically most co-op
coffee is co-mingled when it is dried and grounded.  I hope the remark of
"well the co-op could be the one to register" is sufficient.

Also I think we need to emphasize what was said about in transit cargo.  Any
cargo that simply is transit through the port and the port of arrival only,
is exempt from the requirements.  A lot of Coffee uses the Port of New
Orleans to be transshipped to Europe arriving on one ocean carrier line and
being exported under a T&E under a different ocean carrier and should not
require anyone to register.

Port of Entry -  We have to clarify this.  Customs historically has defined
the port of entry where the Customs entry is filed whether entry is defined
as Consumption or Warehouse.  This should be closely looked at and that the
definition of "port of entry" is what is intended and that has to be
incorporated into the rules on prior notice of the 8, 4 and 2 hours.

24 Hour Rule - As we know there is a 24 hour rule imposed upon carriers
bringing cargo to the United States that certain information and data has to
be supplied to the U. S. > Bureau of Customs & Border Protection 24 hours
prior to loading of the conveyance and this is reviewed by a team made of U.
S. Customs and former other legacy agencies that are now under the Homeland
Security defense flag.  We possibly should look at instead of having Food &
Drug operate their own system different from Homeland Security, all of this
should be in one targeting area and not redundant data going back and forth.

Prior Notification - There is no correlation between U. S. Bureau of Customs
(DHS) requirements for importing and the reporting by Food & Drug.  We do
not have any problem in letting Food & Drug know under the provisions of the
electronic 701 the different sizes, but have a big problem in issuing
pre-arrival notice for every different size.  Again, when examining the law
one does not find this provision and it has apparently been imposed by other
people with the organization.  In my opinion it serves no purpose and will
create many, many redundant and unnecessary reviews, even for a
sophisticated computer system.  I believe this should be re-visited and
modified.

We need a re-affirmation that other non-food items Food & Drug is interested
in - electrical appliances, TV's, crop protection chemicals that have dual
use and other such items such as rubber goods do not require the
registration of the manufacturer or the registration of warehouses that
handle such products.

While these are only a few of my questions and concerns, I am sending copy
to our local Association asking them to review and forward to our members
for any further questions and concerns.

Just a matter of information, we were told that there were many questions on
the Website under the Frequently Asked Questions and Answers.  When we tried
to find same we could not locate and became frustrated.  We were informed on
October 31st by Karen Zepeda of Food & Drug  that no such web site exists at
this time an she would investigate further.  Checked again on November 6th
with Karen Zepeda of Food & Drug and was again informed they are still
working on same and headquarters people will have a phone call tomorrow to
discuss these issues.

I think we all realize there are some provisions that by statute certain
deadlines have to be met, but I think common sense should prevail and a
phase in period started, looking at past practices from the U.S. Bureau of
Customs & Border Protection and the Food & Drug Administration in developing
a workable system.

cc: Peggy Dicharry
    1st Vice President
    International Freight Forwarders & Customs Brokers Assn. of New
Orleans,Inc.

cc: John Hyatt
    Director
    International Freight Forwarders & Customs Brokers Assn. of New
Orleans,Inc.

Paul Wegener
M.G. Maher & Co., Inc.
One Canal Pl
Suite 1600
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
Ph: 504 561-6202
Fax: 504 529-2611
email: pwegener@mgmaher.com