CBP's Deployment of M1 Pilot for First 3 Ports Delayed
Sources at U.S. Customs and Border Protection state that the late October "limited deployment" testing of M1 (ocean and rail e-manifest) user screens by CBP officers at the ports of Baltimore, MD; Buffalo, NY; and Brownsville, TX did not start as planned, and a new schedule is expected to be announced soon. This pilot test will allow CBP officers to assess the use of M1 by its officers and early adopters in the trade.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Currently 14 trade parties (mostly vessel and NVO carriers, and service centers) have completed M1 trade testing and are certified. Others are still in testing mode, and CBP continues to hear from additional companies ready to prepare for the transition from the Automated Manifest System (AMS) in ACS to M1 in ACE for ocean and rail manifests.
Due to Delay, the "Limited Deployment" Pilot May Complete Later than Jan 2012
According to sources, this test delay may push back the pilot's completion date (CBP's full acceptance of the system) beyond January 2012.
Once completed, CBP will publish a Federal Register notice announcing that ACE will be the only CBP approved electronic data interchange (EDI) through which rail and sea manifests may be transmitted. The notice will also announce a six-month time frame for the transition to ACE and the decommissioning of the AMS for rail and sea manifests.
ACE Will be System of Record for Test Participants, so Creation and Maintenance to Originate in ACE
For test participants, ACE will replace ACS as the system of record for ocean and rail data at all ports upon commencement of the test. As such, the creation and maintenance of specified data elements will originate in ACE and will be distributed to other CBP systems.
(The ocean and rail data that will be transmitted to ACE includes the advance cargo information required by section 343 of the Trade Act of 2002, as amended by the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, and the advance data ocean carriers are required to provide pursuant to the importer security filing (ISF) and additional carrier requirements interim final rule (10+2). Currently, this information is required to be transmitted via ACS in advance of arrival through a CBP-approved EDI.)
(See ITT's Online Archives 11101733 and 11110103 for earlier summaries on the deployment of ACE M1 Pilot, including their plans to deploy to these 3 ports later October .)