U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that the ACE Rail Manifest Implementation Guidelines have been updated to include the changes needed for Instruments of International Traffic (IIT) residue reporting.
The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, Inc., has posted the following U.S. Customs and Border Protection's presentation documents for the March 6-8, 2012 Trade Software Developer Technical Seminar. During the seminar, CBP officials will discuss programming changes for existing and new functionality scheduled to be delivered as part of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a document providing answers to general questions on the Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) related to ACH debit, credit, and refunds. The ACH is an electronic payment option that allows participants to pay customs fees, duties, and taxes electronically, as well as receive electronic refunds. CBP offers three ACH options: (1) ACH Debit, which is available to ABI filers using statement processing and can be used to pay all customs, duties, taxes, and fees; (2) ACH Credit, which is available to anyone that clears formal entries on statements, and the company or filer is on ABI and statement processing; and (3) ACH Refund, which is available to anyone who has a taxpayer-assigned identification number, a U.S. bank account, and who expects to receive a refund from CBP.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) user guide on In-Bond Authorization for rail and sea carriers. With the deployment of ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1), rail and sea carriers will have the ability to create a list of authorized Type 2 In-Bond users in their ACE Secure Data Portal Accounts. This functionality will allow the carrier to control who can obligate their Type 2 custodial bonds (CBP Form 301). Although carriers are not required to utilize this functionality, carriers who choose to control access to their bonds have the ability to indicate the specific ports and lengths of time a carrier or broker is authorized to obligate their bond.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Web site as of March 2, 2012, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. These messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://addcvd.cbp.gov.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its February 2012 Trade Account Owner (TAO) Update, which features information on e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1) and other ACE-related topics. CBP encourages carriers to become certified in M1 as CBP soon expects to publish a Federal Register notice in March 2012 to make ACE the only CBP-approved EDI for rail and sea manifest transmissions, etc.
On March 2, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection advised the trade that the regular ACE Maintenance Window (Saturday 2300 EST - Sunday 0500 EST) might be extended Sunday, March 4, 2012 and, if needed, the extended window was scheduled from 5am EST - 6:30pm EST. CBP states that the extended ACE maintenance is now complete and ACE is up and running. (CSMS #12-000066, dated 03/04/12)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has newly posted the recordings and presentation slides for three webinars that are a part of a series of live trade outreach webinars that CBP hosts and subsequently makes available online. The newly posted webinars include: (1) the PIC Business Case ITDS Report on the use of e-commerce data such as global product numbers and electronic product catalogs; (2) running the new Multi-Modal Manifest Reports in ACE; and (3) Rail and Carrier ACE Portal navigation. Topics of previous webinars available for viewing include the role of the broker, account management restructuring, ACE Post Summary Corrections, simplified entry and financial processes, cargo security risks, ACE courtesy notices of liquidation, etc.
On February 29, 2012, Acting Assistant Commissioner Kevin McAleenan and other U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials testified before the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security on CBP's security and trade facilitation efforts in fiscal year 2011. According to the officials, in FY 2011, CBP officers at 331 ports of entry inspected 340 million travelers and more than 105.9 million cars, trucks, buses, trains, vessels and aircrafts. CBP also processed nearly $2.3 trillion in trade in FY 2011, a 14 percent increase over FY 2010, and collected over $37 billion in total duties, taxes, and fees, as well as over $355 million in antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD). CBP officers also conducted 24,800 seizures of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) violations.