U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.

On March 16, 2012, the Port of Long Beach welcomed the largest container ship ever to call on North America, the MSC Fabiola. The vessel measures 1,200 feet in length and is capable of carrying more than 12,000 container units. Port Executive Director J. Lytle stated that this is the largest container vessel now serving U.S.-Asia Trade. The Port states the MSC Fabiola is the first of what is expected to be a string of larger container ships to be deployed by ocean carriers in Pacific Rim routes. However, few ports in the world have navigation channels deep enough to handle bigger ships. The Port of Long Beach's main channel is 76 feet deep, the deepest in North America and the Port will invest $4.5 billion over the next decade to modernize its facilities, including work on the Middle Harbor terminal and replacement of the Gerald Desmond Bridge with a higher span that will allow larger ships to reach the back channels.

This summary report highlights the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s March 19, 2012 “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” It also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly March 19, 2012 “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.”¹

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a form on which the trade can request a speaker on CBP's intellectual property rights (IPR) programs to speak at trade fairs, conventions, conferences, seminars, and workshops. If an individual who would like to request an IPR speaker on behalf of their group completes the request form, CBP will respond promptly to the request.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its March 21, 2012 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 46, No. 13), which contains two notices of ruling actions, as follows:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that compatibility issues between the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) version 8 security patch KB2585542 have been resolved. Users should no longer experience ACE Portal issues with this patch installed. CBP found this issue in January 2012, which affected response times in the ACE Portal. CBP had provided an interim solution for the trade, which involved the removal of the security patch. CBP states users should reports ACE Portal issues to the CBP Technology Service Desk at 1-866-530-4172 or cbp.technology.service.desk@cbp.dhs.gov.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that registration for its West Coast Trade Symposium on May 10, 2012 is still open. The Symposium's theme is "Transforming Trade for a Stronger Economy" and will be held in Long, Beach California. The Symposium will also be available via a live webcast. More information on the Symposium and registration links are available here. (CSMS #12-000101, dated 03/21/12)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a three-page list of the URLs for resources to assist the trade in using the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Secure Data Portal. The URLs for 18 ACE User Guides on topics ranging from an introduction to ACE to specific topics on AD/CVD cases and messages, e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1), running reports, etc. are provided. Several ACE User Guides are also available in Spanish. Other ACE resources include ACE web-based training and presentations on ACE capabilities. See document for full list of resources, more detailed descriptions, and links.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued updated information on its pilot test of electronic export ocean manifests (CBP Form 1302A) using the CBP Document Image System (DIS). This additional information notes that the initial phase of the pilot is anticipated to start on March 28 (not March 26) and will run for 30-90 days, after which CBP will determine if it should be expanded to other ports. CBP has also listed contact information for those that are interested in participating in this voluntary pilot, one more port (Newport News) for the Atlanta Field Office, and noted that the AESTIR has been updated for the pilot.