|
April 30, 2021
PHIS Enhancements Launch in July
On July 9, 2021, the Public Health Information System (PHIS) will be enhanced with a new signature technology that will strengthen the security and allow a one-step process to apply the digital signatures of the approving FSIS inspection program personnel (IPP) to export certificates and other associated forms. The enhancements will also include a more secure method for foreign governments to access, verify, and authenticate export certificates in the Foreign Country Log-in (FCL) feature in PHIS, a feature the agency first made available in 2014. This enhancement does not apply to countries that require a wet ink signature for export certificates.
Additionally, FSIS will begin using the statements feature implemented in December 2019, in lieu of the additional paper documents, “Letter Head Certificates” for each newly implemented country that requires such. This feature will print all statements that have traditionally printed on the separate document to now print on the export certificate in the remarks section and any continuation pages as necessary.
Industry will no longer have to complete and upload a Letter Head Certificate with the export application; however, it will require industry to verify and select the appropriate statement(s) that will be pre-populated and viewable during the application process.
Implementation Rollout
On July 26, 2021, FSIS will implement all export certificates in PHIS for the following countries, regions, and territories: Bangladesh, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Libya, Macao, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mauritania, Micronesia, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Palau, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Tonga.
On August 30, 2021, FSIS will implement all export certificates in PHIS for the following countries, regions and territories: Benin, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Grenada, Guyana, Honduras, Myanmar, Panama, Qatar, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Venezuela.
As the agency moves forward with the above countries, there will be ongoing assessments of which countries should be included in the next PHIS export implementation phase.
All exporters are encouraged to use the Industry Test Environment (ITE). If you are new to PHIS-export and/or if your electronic Authorization (eAuth) level 2 has expired, log on to initiate and complete the process prior to the July 26 and August 30 implementations. Please note that eAuth level 2 is required for all persons that will access PHIS, both the test environment and the live production environment. Additionally, please note that PHIS login credentials expire after 60 days of inactivity.
As with all enhancements to PHIS, User Guides will be posted on the FSIS website, as well as made available to access through the PHIS – HELP button, located in the upper right corner of the browser window. Both sites will be updated prior to the July 9, 2021, enhancements.
Industry Test Environment: https://phisindsite.fsis.usda.gov
PHIS technical questions: PHISTechnicalQA@usda.gov
Export Policy Questions: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/contact-us/askfsis
Export Requirements Update
The Library of Export Requirements has been updated for products for the following country:
Complete information can be found at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/import-export/import-export-library.
Policy Update
FSIS notices and directives on public health and regulatory issues are available at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/policy/directives-notices. The following policy update was recently issued:
FSIS Notice 17 -21 - Mandatory Equal Employment Opportunity and Civil Rights Trainings for All FSIS Employees
|
