The U.S. federal government has been in a shutdown since 12:01 AM on December 22, 2018, after lawmakers failed to reach a funding deal. The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) confirmed “CBP is working with other agencies to have the flow of trade as close to normal as possible. [CBP] management and leadership will continue to work, [while] client representatives and others will not. In the case of an ACE outage, client representatives will be recalled. Ports will be staffed as normal [and] trucks will be processed, air cargo and hubs will be working and trains and vessels will all be processed.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the largest agency operating on temporary funding. According to DHS contingency plans, Customs & Border Protection (CBP) revenue collections will continue during a shutdown. All but 5,200 of CBP’s 60,100 employees would have to continue working without pay during the shutdown.
During shutdowns, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) will continue to review import entries; however, the FDA will not be able to support some routine regulatory and compliance activities; including some medical product, animal drug, and most food related activities. FDA will also pause routine establishment inspections, cosmetics and nutrition work, and many ongoing research activities.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) closes during a shutdown, which could potentially delay its report on the economic effects of the new NAFTA deal; and, if the shutdown were to last longer, investigations completely would halt.
As Green continues to monitor the situation, stay up-to-date on freight news by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. For continuous updates, make sure to check out our website at greenworldwide.com.
