>> CHRISSI GUTH: Good afternoon.
Today's webinar is on meat products on
Chapter 2 and 16. This webinar is a part
of the NCSD2023 webinar series. You will
be on mute during the presentation. We
ask that you submit questions you have
in the chat feature. If you plan to
request the optional CCS or CES credits
through the educational institute,
please check the chat box for the
completion code. Now I would like to
pass it over to national import
specialist, Ekeng Manczuk.
>> EKENG MANCZUK: Good afternoon,
everybody, good morning, wherever you
are. My name is Ekeng Manczuk, known
throughout customs as Ebbe. Today we're
going to delve into a topic, where is
the beef? I think I just age myself.
We're doing meat products of Chapter 2
and 16. I hope you can hear me out there
in the webinar world.
We'll go through here our mission. We
all know this as customs employees, but
this is good to send out to those who
are not part of our customs family.
We're the guardians of our nation's
borders. We are America's front line. We
safeguard the American homeland and
protect the public against terrorists
and steadfastly enforce the laws of the
United States while fostering our
nation's economic security through
lawful international trade and travel.
We serve the American public with
vigilance, integrity, and
professionalism. Here is a disclaimer.
This does not replace a binding ruling.
This is for information purposes, if you
have questions or need further
information about what we're talking
about today -- you can use this as
guidance, but if you need concrete
answers, please submit a binding ruling
through the proper channels.
Where's the beef? It looks so good.
It's lunchtime. I'm hungry. Exclusions.
I often like to start my webinar by
saying what does not belong in a
chapter. This chapter in particular,
Chapter 2, does not cover products
described in 02.01, 08, or 10. Those
articles would be classified in heading
0511 which specifically addresses
products of animal origin that are
unsuitable or unfit for human
consumption. Edible non-living insects
of heading 0410. That just got placed
into this current HTS. I had would work
with the WCO, their attorneys to work on
arriving at a crafted heading to address
insects that are edible and non edible.
This heading does not cover guts,
bladders, or stomachs or animal blood
covered in heading 0511 and also in
3002. 3002, I believe, is handled by
NIS. This does not cover animal fat,
covered in heading 0209. I will address
that later. At present, we're still
working on how much fat can adhere to
meat for it to be classified in Chapter
2 and how much fat and less meat would
allow the product to remain in 1502.
That's when we talk about the chemical
lean of a product. That's the ratio of
meat to fat or fat to meat, which at
this point is a topic that is sort of
winding down through the HSC committee.
Something we're going to address later
on at the end of this webinar. These are
the exclusions. Exclusions are just as
important as inclusions, so I always like to start with those.
Let's move on. Major meats and poultry
products are covered under the purview
of the USDA and FSIS. FSIS is the food
safety and inspection service and
they're responsible for ensuring that
meat, poultry, and egg products are
safe, properly labelled and packaged for
importation into the United States. FDA
is responsible for other types of red
meats such as bison, rabbit, pretty much
game meat, deer, wild birds, things that
we wouldn't consider your average, every
day meat that you buy at the store.
USDA covers beef, veal, mutton, goat,
lamb, turkey, duck, chicken, geese, et
cetera. While FDA, on the other hand, is
responsible for the other types of meat
that you hunt. Not your usual run of the
mill. Just for requirement sake you need
to know the difference. These meat
products cannot be imported inn
discriminately from anywhere. You can't
just pack up meat and bring it into the
country. You must be on the USDA/FSIS
eligible country and product list.
These meat products must be
accompanied by the foreign government
inspection certificate which has to
match the invoice. FSIS examines the
certificate and determine if that
product is admissible. We can offer a
conditional release on a product until
the final determination by FSIS.
However, we will flow with what they
say.
Most meat items, beef items of Chapter
2 are subject to the TRQ under
additional note three. And for certain
countries such, those goods are entered
into our importer requirement and
require a valid foreign government
export certificate. 35 countries are
eligible to export meat, poultry, or egg
products into the United States. And
each country, when you go on the website
you can see the list of countries and
you must click on each link to get a
detailed listing of the allowed foreign
establishment. If you get an invoice and
you see a certain establishment, in
order for you to know if that
establishment is an approved
establishment, meaning the way they
conduct business at their slaughter
house, the level of hygiene and
cleanliness, et cetera, meets American
standards, you have to click on that
link.
These are the products that are
allowed. Beef, veal, as you can see,
poultry, chicken, turkey, duck, goose,
Guinea, Squab and these are the egg
products allowed. A certified
establishment is an establishment that
the country's central competent
authority, their equivalent of FSIS,
USDA, et cetera, certifies as meeting
the requirement of the inspection system
that that of the USDA, that their level
of inspection system is of equivalence
to that of the United States which
allows them to be eligible to export
meat, poultry, and egg products into the
United States.
That's the link if you want to write
it down. If you need me to text it to
you -- text -- [Laughing]. I can email
it out if someone emails me and says
they need that information.
So this is an excerpt to show you guys
what that looks like.
It gives you the processing, the
country, what they can bring in. As you
can see, Argentina is allowed to bring
in beef. Australia can be raw and
processed, they can also bring lamb and
ostrich and so on and so forth. If you
go onto the website, you can see this
same information and then click, for
instance, on Argentina and it will list
out all of the establishments that are
permitted to bring products into the
United States.
FSIS terms defined, raw, raw and
processed, we'll let you know what that
means. Raw product that's not intact
means it has been cut in different
chunks and different various cuts of
beef, processed, non intact meaning no
longer together. Raw product intact,
FSIS considers those products to be
intact unless they've undergone
processes associated with non intact
process category. If it's in its whole
form, then it's intact. The types of
eggs and egg products under the
categories here apply to dried,
pasteurized and unpasteurized egg
products. If anyone these this cuts of
beef, let me know. Maybe about four or 5
years ago, I got a request from the 44F
committee about creating specific sub
headings for specific types of cuts. We
never had that before. It was always
whole, half carcass, in bone, very
generalized. All of the sudden I got a
request saying we want to be able to
account for statistically data wise the
types of cuts that are coming in.
That was created in the last HTS.
And so we're able to see where flanks
get classified, where chucks get
classified. This helps you get an
understanding. Because when we go to the
supermarket, they're already wrapped up.
You don't know where they cut it from
unless you grew up in a farming
community. If you ever need this, let me
know and I will send it to you so you
can see where all of those cuts are
derived from on a whole cattle.
No pun intended, dissecting Chapter 2.
Chapter 2 applies to meat in carcasses,
animal bodies with or without the head.
Half carcasses, quarters and pieces.
All of the products that enter into
Chapter 2 are all animals except fish
and aquatic invertebrates. Those are in
Chapter 3. If you want a webinar on that
again, let me know. I can make that
available later on.
These are all products of animal
origin. And they have to be suitable for
human consumption. Otherwise it's going
to be in Chapter 5.
Chapter 2 includes meat, meat off al,
flours and meals of meet or meet offal
that are for human consumption. Flours
and meals of meat and offal that are not
for human consumption will be found in
Chapter 23. used for animal feed
products.
So if it's for human consumption, this stays in two, if it's not for human consumption you're either looking at Chapter 5 or Chapter 23.
Offal, generally they're just the
inferior cuts from the head, feet,
liver, tails, all of the useless parts
-- [Laughing] -- I call them. They're
not useless, just stuff that are
inferior cuts from those parts of the
animal. If you want to learn more about
that, you can see general EN for Chapter
2. There's an extensive listing on how
to classify. I will touch on it, but
it's always good to read for yourself.
But we'll touch on it further in.
These are offals that are unsuitable
for human consumption. Offals are
generally grouped into four categories.
One are those mainly used for human
consumption, heads, tongue, thick skirt,
thymus gland, and such.
You have those that are going to be
used for preparation of pharmaceutical
products like gal bags, placenta. You
have those that are for human
consumption or pharmaceutical products
and then you have skin which can be used
for the human consumption or for
leather. In my culture, we eat cow skin.
In my language, we call it
[indiscernible].
Let me slightly go back to slide 14,
give you a little more detail.
These offals are mainly human
consumption. They can come in various
forms, fresh, chilled, frozen, salted,
in brine, dried or smoked. In all of
those forms they remain classified in
Chapter 2 unless it's unfit for human
consumption in which case it's
classified in 11. When they're fresh,
chilled, frozen or preserved, meaning
preserved in some form of chemicals and
they're dried. Offals used for human
consumption or for the preparation of
pharmaceutical products are classified
as follows. When preserved for
pharmaceutical products, for example,
glycerol, acetone, alcohol,
formaldehyde, chemicals. They're also
classified here if they're dried.
Chapter 2 when suitable for human
consumption but in heading 0511 when
unsuitable for human consumption. Offals
such as skin, which can be for human
consumption, all other purposes can be
classified in two.
Or generally 0511 or in 41 if unfit
for human consumption. That's where you
talk about leather now. Guts, bladders
and stomachs whether or not edible are
classified in 0504.
Guts, for instance, can be edible but
can also be used to make guitar strings
and various other types of things.
All right. I failed to mention this at
the beginning, if you have questions, I
will respond to them at the end. I don't
like interrupting myself to answer
questions. If you have anything, please
prepare it and I will address it at the
end.
Continuing with dissecting Chapter 2.
Chapter 2 covers meats and meat offals
in the following state, whether or not
they've been scalded or similarly
treated. However, it cannot be cooked.
You can throw some hot water on it, but
you cannot steam it or it cannot be
cooked. Otherwise, it goes into Chapter
16. Now you're preparing it.
Sometimes you can use hot water to
quickly clean the meat off. Sort of like
maybe a disinfecting method, but it's
just a quick wash but it's not to cook
the product.
If you go beyond just scalding the
product to clean it or disinfect it, now
the product switches from Chapter 2 into
Chapter 16 as a prepared meat as opposed
to Chapter 2. To be classified in
Chapter 2, you can be in these various
forms: Fresh, packed in salt as a
temporary preservative during transport.
If you put the salt there to make it
into some kind of curing or jerk, then
we're moving beyond two and into Chapter
16.
The salt can only be in a form to keep
it preserved, not to cure or to cook.
First heading of Chapter 2 is 0201,
that covers main Leach fresh or chilled
meats or bovine, cattle, bison, buffalo,
oxen. Beef is considered meat of cattle,
steer, bull. 0201 and subsequent
headings have breakouts for subsequent
meat as defined in AUSN1. We will touch
on that further in.
For the purpose of Chapter 2, ground,
pulverized, diced, cut into stew meat,
rolled, or specially processed into
fancy cuts, special shapes or otherwise
made ready for particular uses by the
consumer. This last phrase is open to
interpretation. C BP has limited it
largely to portion controlled cuts,
individual servings. You can write down
this HQRL number to understand our
interpretation further.
Within the breakout for processed
meats, FSIS has their own definition --
meats are additional ones for high
quality beef, defined in AUSN1b.
Basically, same as the second part of
processed definition + certified by
exporting country to meet certain USDA
certifications, Canada is the only
country that has an agreement with the
U.S. for this purpose.
I showed you the other detailed
diagram. This is another diagram that
shows you where you get these various
cuts from.
The flank, the shank, round, chuck,
sirloin, tenderloin, we see them in the
store wrapped up, but this is where they
all come from.
Like I said, before we never had a
provision for these various cuts and now
we do. That came through a specific
request through the 44F committee.
Additional U.S. note two, in assessing
the duty on meats, no allowance shall be
made for normal components there of such
as bones, fat, hide, or skin. The weight
includes the entire content of the
container.
It's considered in its entirety.
Additional U.S. note three addresses
the quota, the aggregate quantity of
beef entered under sub headings in any
calendar year. Canada and Mexico have no
limits. Australia, these are the allowed
quantities. And other countries share
the 64,805 limitation. Brazil just began
exporting to the United States in 2017
and they use up most of the other
countries/areas category there of 64,805
whereas the rest have to try to make
their way in there.
Heading 0202 cover is a bovine meats
that are in frozen condition and it's
structure when you look, it's the same
as 0201 and then it progresses into
whether it's bone in or boneless. 0203
addresses swine and pigs, whether
domestic or wild. This includes,
streaking pork, similar meets
interlarded with a high proportion of
fat. This is not addressing chemical
lean. This is strictly addressing pork.
Four addresses meats of sheep and
goat. Sub headings of references to lamb
denote meat of sheep not over 12 months
of age. It's important to ask that
question if you have an invoice that
does not indicate the age of the meat.
0205 covers horses. Horses, ass, mules
or hinnies. Heading 0206 covers edible
offal of all of the above referenced
animals. For reference you can look at
the ENs, 0206 general. That's where you
can go to reference it.
Heading 0207 will cover meats and
edible offals of poultry, which are also
in heading 0105, chickens, ducks, geese,
Turkey, and Guinea. Wild birds have
their own category, permit, et cetera
through FDA. Not all wild birds are
allowed. There's not enough time to go
into that. If you need to know what
those are about, you can email me.
Heading 0208 is the basket catch all
for meat and offals not covered in
previous headings, examples are rabbits,
deer, bear. Heading 0209 covers pig fat
and poultry fat even if it's only fit
for industrial use making soaps and
things. It must be in the form removed
directly from the animal. That is, it's
not been rendered, melted down or
otherwise extracted, meaning separated
by processes with heat and solvent, it
has to be free of meat. If meat adheres,
it classifies as meat.
Earlier I said not having to do with
pig fat but it does. I misspoke and I
apologize. These rulings and this court
case you can look at. At this time, I
can address what is a current topic with
the WCO and various customs
administrations around the world. At
this time the real issue being discussed
is the matter of interpreting what could
or could not be classified in Chapter 2.
The problem lays in ascertaining the
quantity of meat adhering to fat that
would be acceptable without affecting
the product's classification as fat.
Chemical lean is defined as the amount
of lean red meat compared to the amount
of fat in a product.
There are 15 various methods that can
be used to make this determination,
however, all of them are very expensive
and all of the countries are not united
in what is the allowable percentage of
meat versus fat. That's the heavy
discussion that's being held.
Now, obviously, the U.S. has its own
position. If you want to know what that
is, you can email me. It's too much to
get into right now.But
I wanted to let you know regarding
heading 0209 there's a lot of questions
now about meat, fat, how much meat
versus fat. There are changing coming
down the pipe eventually that you should
expect to see.
Chapter 16, is that you? Once a
product has exceeded the scope of
Chapter 2, it's not freeze, chilled,
frozen and is otherwise prepared, this
would force a product into 16. One of
the first things we consider is the note
two of Chapter 16, which is does the
product contain more than 20 percent by
weight of sausage, meat, meat offal, or
blood.
If it's under 20 percent, it goes
right directly to Mr. Petra loanis. If
it's over 20 percent, it's something
that I would handle except if it's
stuffed pasta, which is classified in
1902. Sauces and condiments and soups of
heading 2103 and 2104 remain in those
headings even if it's 20 percent meat.
You have to determine does the product
meet what we would consider a sauce, a
condiment or a soup? The product has to
meet those conditions before you
classify there.
Be mindful of note two of 16. When you
have food preparation that includes
sausage, meat, meat offal, and blood and
seafood. Yes, seafood also is
considerable and when you are
considering that, you have to go by --
you classify by the predominant meat
product. If you have 50 percent poultry
and then the rest is divvied up, you go
with poultry. However, if you have
various combinations, you have to add
them up and total them to the highest.
In Chapter 2 versus 16, chilled is
products that are reduced to 0 degrees
celsius without being frozen. Frozen is
cooled to below the products freezing
point until it's frozen throughout. Meat
and meat offal not falling in any
heading of Chapter 2 are classified in
Chapter 16, example Saussages and
similar products whether or not cooked
in 1601. Meat and meat offal cooked in
any way, boiled, steamed, grilled,
fried, roasted -- not scalding -- cooked
or otherwise prepared or preserved in
processes that are not provided for in
Chapter 2. This includes covering with
batter or bred crumbs, truffled or
seasoned with salt and pepper. Not salt
for preservation processes. As well as
liver pastes and pates are in heading
1602. There's a little bit of a thin
line, especially when it comes to
seasoning. How much of the seasoning is
for preservation? How much of the
seasoning is for seasoning the product?
In general, Chapter 2 meats must not
be prepared or preserved beyond the
states that are listed as in fresh,
chilled, frozen, salted, brined, dried,
smoked. But reduction in size are
permitted in Chapter 2 as are scalding,
tenderizing, and slight sprinkling of
sugar, you have to be mindful of the
process that the product has undergone,
that it doesn't go beyond the scope of
two. If you have a heavy amount of salt,
you have to determine what is for
seasoning, what is for preservation
because that will determine where the
product goes.
These are -- I know it's repetitious
but it requires repeating.
Cooking in any way, adding other
ingredients such as bring, badder,
spices or seasoning other than minor
additions not affecting the character of
the meat. Seasoning should impart
seasoned appearance or clearly
distinguished taste and not mere
enhancements of natural flavor. All of
these rulings here, if you need them,
email me. All of these rulings address
that particular issue. This last one
affirmed a three percent minimum salt
and pepper or salt and spice test to
allow for either 16 or classification in
two. Products consisting of largely fat,
bones and or skin, even if with
relatively small amounts of adhering fat
are classified as meat. However, we have
the situation of determining the
chemical lean. That is going to put a
monkey wrench in the situation. Until
determined, this is what we go by.
All of these components are included
in a valuable and quantity. We don't
make allowances for these things,
they're all part of what the duty would
be applied to.
We're almost there, folks. Ride with
me.
Heading 1601 provides for sausages and
preparations there of of meat, meat
offal, or blood. You know what a sausage
looks like, similar shape, either with
or without casing, heading also includes
Saussages that are in a prepared meal
form, not just the Saussage it self but
in prepared meal form and other food
preference radiation based on sausage.
1602 is the most extensive of the
headings of the chapter. It covers all
prepared or preserved meat, offal, and
blood products other than sausages and
juices or extracts, it includes a wide
range of goods that have been cooked or
combined with other ingredients.
The sub headings and terminology on
1602 are self-explanatory.
Homogenized preparations are generally
foods reduced to such a fine particle
intended for infants or customers with
various digestive problems.
Cured or pickled, when you start
preserving things with salt to the point
that it's curing, you cannot classify it
in Chapter 2. It has to be classified in
1602. Pickling. You add nitrates, sugar,
spices. This is an HQ ruling you can
look at, this is also a court case that
you can look at on whether beef jerky is
carried cured. We all know what pickling
is. Pickled cucumber. Pickled pig feet.
Yummy, delicious. 1603, extracts and
juices of meat and seafood. This was
rarely touched until Jed wards versus
United States. Extracts are generally
obtained by boiling or steaming meat
under pressure, then extracting that
liquid after removing the fat. And that
finished extract may be in liquid or
solid form and it can be concentrated
and in this case the juices are obtained
from pressing raw meat.
1603 also covers fish, but mainly
meat.
Changes are coming, as I said.
This is some of the stuff you will
see. Amendments to note 1D to Chapter 2.
It will delete and substitute note D.
Saying boneless animal meat fats
trimmings of 02.01, 02, and 04 with a
chemical lean meat content of less than
20 percent will go to these headings.
Otherwise we consider 1602. This is
something to consider, just a brief
glance. Something that you should expect
to see that you're going to have to
start expecting to speak on chemical
lean of meat.
This actually -- this change came
about in 2021 and the proposal was made
by South Africa, they needed to clarify
the classification of fat trimmings in
two versus 16 and wanting to address how
to distinguish the various criteria in
the explanatory notes as well.
Yes. That's something that you should
definitely consider or expect to see
soon.
Let's see. Before I go into this
helpful information, I had sent out a
couple of quick alerts that I want to
reiterate in case -- I don't know how
often people check their quicks out
there, but effective March 30th the
department of agriculture, within
agriculture, the animal plan health
inspection service removed restriction
on the importation of poultry, other
bird products originating from British
Columbia.I
have a long list of the zones in British
Columbia from which they have removed
restrictions. If you need to know that,
let me know. Also AVIS has added
Thailand and north Macedonia to regions
affected by swine fever. They added
Thailand January 20, 2022, north
Macedonia was added February 3, 2022.
And USDA regulations prohibits the
importation of pork and pork products in
regions where African swine fever exist,
you can always go onto the USDA website
and look at these things to make sure
you're up-to-date so when you see these
things you know if they're supposed to
be importing it or not.
Again, September 15th of last year
AFIS has now made Lithuania eligible to
export eggs into the United States.
They've certified the Lithuanian
establishments. As of September 15th,
Lithuania was added to the list of
countries that are allowed. The egg
product inspection act prohibits the
importation of egg products unless
they've been processed under strict and
approved inspection systems and they
must match ours. They have reviewed
Lithuania's laws and regulations and
they meet our standards. All egg
products from Lithuania are allowed.
I wanted to make sure I provide all of
this info to you.
Lastly, the government of Mexico has
requested that AFIS evaluate and
classify beef from Sonora for
brucellosis. In response to Mexico's
request, the U.S. has prepared an
evaluation for this. It concluded that
the state of Sonora meets the condition
to be classified as Level 1 of
brucellosis. These are the various
alerts I sent out to you in CBP
regarding this particular issue. I hope
you're staying up-to-date so you know
what you can approve for release or not
approve for release regarding meats.
And that is the conclusion of this.
These are various different websites
that -- sorry, CFRs you can look at
regarding countries currently listed as
equivalent to the U.S. regarding meat
export, poultry export, egg product
export. This is the link for the
eligible foreign establishments. Looking
at the FSIS fact sheet is very helpful.
That gives you -- answers questions
regarding food safety, et cetera.
And then under A pH IS website you can
look at the foreign country's animal
disease status regarding Mexico,
regarding Lithuania.
It varies there. One year a country
could be eligible, the next year not
eligible. It's good to occasionally go
on this website to keep yourself
updated. Sometimes these folks are
banking on us not having the time to go
these extra miles.
It's very important to try and keep
up-to-date on that information.
This is my contact information. My
phone number. This is my email address.
I would prefer that you email me,
please, rather than call.
I'd really be thankful for that. Now
it's time for Q&A.
We don't have much time left. CG, how
many minutes? I have time for some
questions. If you would rather not ask
your question now, my email is here.
You can send me an email and I'll try
to address your question.
But don't be shy.
I'm not ashamed to say if I don't know
I'll get back to you, but you can ask
anyway.
We'll go once, twice... going two and
a half -- I'm either going to take it
that the webinar was well explained and
you don't have questions...
All right. I thank you for listening.
I thank you for your time and
attention.
Again, if you didn't want to ask your
question here, you can always email me
right here. I prefer to be emailed,
please.
I will address your concerns at that
time. Until then, I hope you all have a
wonderful and blessed day. Thank you for
listening.
>> CHRISSI GUTH: This concludes the
webinar for this afternoon. If you
logged into this webinar using your
email, you will receive an email with
the CCS/CES code within 48 hours. This
will be posted on the CPB website. Thank
your day.