CBP No Longer Says 1st Air Cargo Simplified Entry Is in March, Lists CEEs Again
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted another updated version of its February 2012 "Trade Transformation" document. The revised document no longer states that testing of the Simplified Entry process in the air cargo environment will begin mid-February followed by production in late February to early March. The updated document also no longer states that the first Simplified Entry is expected to be filed (by the trade) in March 2012. The revised version has also added back in a listing of the locations for the two established and seven planned industry Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs).
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CBP Had Originally Expected Testing to Begin Earlier, but Was Impacted by M1 Deployment
In late January 2012, CBP stated that the agency expected the first live Simplified Entry to be filed in March 2012, and it planned that the SE would satisfy both security and trade concerns in the air mode. At that time, an official also stated that SE testing with the trade was delayed from its late Jan/early February timeframe largely due to a slow-down in the deployment of M1 (e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail). (See ITT's Online Archives 12012322 and 12012321 for summaries. Also see 12021749 where CBP stated that M1 deployment was going well, and that all direct arrival ports would be deployed with trained CBP users by the end of March 2012.)
(In December 2011, CBP selected nine brokers to participate in a test of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) SE capability for the air mode. The SE pilot will eliminate the current 27 data elements required on CBP Form 3461, to be replaced with a streamlined set of 12 data elements. This is intended to simplify the merchandise release process and reduce transaction costs for the trade. See ITT's Online Archives 11120915 for summary listing the broker and associated importer participants in the SE test. See ITT's Online Archives 11111016 and 11110918 for summaries of the SE test and the data elements.)
Document Once Again Lists Current and Future CEE Locations
The updated document once again lists the locations for the two established and seven planned industry Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs), as follows:
| No. | Industry | City Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Agriculture and Prepared Products | Miami |
| 2. | Automotive and Aerospace | Detroit |
| 3. | Base Metals and Machinery | Laredo |
| 4. | Consumer Products | Chicago |
| 5. | Industrial & Manufacturing Materials | Buffalo |
| 6. | Information Technology & Consumer Electronics1 | Los Angeles |
| 7. | Petroleum, Natural Gas and Minerals | Houston |
| 8. | Pharmaceuticals, Health and Chemicals1 | New York |
| 9. | Textiles, Wearing Apparel and Footwear | Atlanta |
1CBP is using the new names for these permanent CEEs, which reflects their future scope. (See ITT's Online Archives 12012004 for summary of CBP's plans to expand the scope of these two CEEs in mid-fiscal year 2012.)
(See ITT's Online Archives 12021019 and 12021411 for summaries of CBP's original and revised version of this document.)