Customs may have to furlough 6000 employees if a funding issue is not resolved by midnight of February 27,2015. There was a conference call made between NCBFAA and CBP Commissioner, R. Gil Kerlikowske discussing what the impact will be to the nation and trade. The possible DHS shutdown; however, will be different from the complete Government shutdown that happened back in 2013.
We have contacted CBP, USDA, FDA and Fish & Wildlife and we would like you to know the following:
Customs and Border Protection – Will continue to operate. Import cargo release, drawback and entry specialist will not be impacted and Quota entries will still be processed and released. however; our ABI Client Reps will not be reporting to work.
USDA – Although they are part of DHS, they will be operating as usual.
FDA – Will not be affected at all
Fish & Wildlife Service – Will not be affected at all
We will continue to monitor CBP and the rest of the government agencies involved with cargo importation and will update our customers as we receive further information.
To Watch Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske discusses the impacts on CBP of a potential DHS shutdown, please click on this link:
Thank you,
Flegenheimer Team
Leave a Reply