Effective August 28, 2016, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) by updating sections 608.2.5.6, Placement of ITN, AES Downtime Citation, or AES Exemption, 703.2.3.6, Customs Declarations, and Index and Appendices.
In this issue of the Postal Bulletin (22448), we published a separate article revising the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®), in part to reflect classification and standards changes to support the addition of new customs form PS Form 2976-R, USPS Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note. PS Form 2976-R is a multi-ply, nonbarcoded hard copy customs declaration form and worksheet for use in Postal Service retail locations. We will begin to use PS Form 2976-R as we phase out use of the hard copy customs declaration forms PS Form 2976, Customs Declaration CN 22 — Sender’s Declaration; PS Form 2976-A, Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note — CP 72; and PS Form 2976-B, Priority Mail Express International Shipping Label and Customs Form. Customers will fill out PS Form 2976-R and provide the handwritten forms and their packages to an employee at a Postal Service retail service counter, who will then enter the data into Retail Systems Software (RSS) or Customs Form Online and print out the correct customs form and postage.
Shipments to Army Post Offices, Fleet Post Offices, Diplomatic Post Offices, and U.S. Possessions, Territories, and Freely Associated States may continue to use PS Forms 2976, 2976-A, and 2976-B, as appropriate, when a customs declaration form is required. However, we are revising the DMM to reflect the addition of PS Form 2976-R and clarifying that other customs forms should be electronically generated.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)
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600 Basic Standards For All Mailing Services
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608 Postal Information and Resources
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2.0 Domestic Mail
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2.5 Foreign Trade Regulations — U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Bureau of Census
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2.5.6 Placement of ITN, AES Downtime Citation, or AES Exemption
[Revise the second and third sentences of 2.5.6 to read as follows:]
***However, when a shipment requires an ITN, or AES Downtime Citation, or AES Exemption, and a PS Form 2976-A is used under 2.4, it is the customer’s responsibility to legibly write one ITN, AES Downtime Citation, or applicable AES Exemption in Block 13 and 14, respectively, of hard copy PS Form 2976-R, USPS Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note, or in the AES⁄ITN⁄Exemption field of electronic PS Form 2976-A, Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note — CP 72. The only authorized edition for PS Form 2976-R is April 2016; the only authorized editions for PS Form 2976-A are September 2012 and July 2013.
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700 Special Standards
703 Nonprofit Standard Mail and Other Unique Eligibility
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2.0 Overseas Military and Diplomatic Post Office Mail
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2.3 General Restrictions
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2.3.6 Customs Declarations
[Revise the first sentence of 2.3.6 to read as follows:]
A hard copy PS Form 2976-R, Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note, may be completed and presented with mailpieces at a retail service counter or an electronically generated PS Form 2976, PS Form 2976-A, or PS Form 2976-B must be applied to mailpieces sent to APO, FPO, and DPO addresses as required in the “Overseas Military⁄Diplomatic Mail” section of the Postal Bulletin.***
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Index and Appendices
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Forms Glossary
[Add the following forms in numerical order (after 2976-A) to read as follows:]
2976-B, Priority Mail Express International Shipping Label and Customs Form
2976-R, USPS Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note
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Although effective August 28, 2016, we will incorporate these revisions into a later edition of the online DMM (scheduled for October 3, 2016). The online DMM is available via Postal Explorer® at http:⁄⁄pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification,
Marketing and Sales, 8-18-16
