On Friday, February 10, 2020, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a Temporary Final Rule (TFR) on Federal Register Notice 85 No 70 FR 20195 to address the prioritization and allocation of certain scarce or threatened health and medical resources for domestic use. The intent of the rule is that the scarce or threatened personal protective equipment (PPE) materials remain in the United States for use in responding to the spread of COVID-19. The materials identified in the TFR may not be exported from the United States without explicit approval by FEMA.

The rule applies to the following resources:

N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators, including devices that are disposable half-face-piece non-powered air purifying particulate respirators intended for use to cover the nose and mouth of the wearer to help reduce wearer exposure to pathogenic biological airborne particulates;
Other Filtering Facepiece Respirators (e.g., those designated as N99, N100, R95, R99, R100, or P95, P99, P100), including single-use, disposable half-mask respiratory protective devices that cover the user’s airway (nose and mouth) and offer protection from particulate materials at an N95 filtration efficiency level per 42 CFR 84.181;
Elastomeric, air-purifying respirators and appropriate particulate filters/cartridges;
PPE surgical masks, including masks that cover the user’s nose and mouth and provide a physical barrier to fluids and particulate materials; and
PPE gloves or surgical gloves, including those defined at 21 CFR 880.6250 (exam gloves) and 878.4460 (surgical gloves) and such gloves intended for the same purposes.

FEMA has conveyed to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that the focus of this effort is on commercial quantities of $2500 and above and containing more than 10,000 units of gloves, masks, or other resources referenced above.

The following circumstances are also excluded:

Exports to Canada or Mexico
Exports to U.S. government entities such as U.S. military bases overseas
Exports by U.S. government agencies
Exports by U.S. charities
Exports by critical infrastructure industries for the protection of their workers
Exports by 3M Company
Express or mail parcels that do not meet the commercial quantity definition above
In-transit shipments

As a result, CBP will ramp up efforts to assess risk on shipments filed in AES and target shipments for commercial quantities of the PPE resources that do not meet the exclusions. The full CBP memorandum may be found here.

For more information, please contact your local Noatum Logistics USA (Formerly MIQ Logistics) representative.