The Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) for CBP will next meet May 22 at 1 p.m. in Miami, CBP said in a notice. Registration is available (here).
Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)
The Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) is the CBP's electronic system through which the international trade community reports imports and exports to and from the U.S. and the government determines admissibility.
The recently elected National Customs Brokers & Forwarders President Geoffrey Powell will work to engage members on coming changes to the Automated Commercial Environment and export control reform, he said to association staff, according to a NCBFAA press release. “CBP’s ACE drop dates are on schedule which means all members must be using it by November 2015 if they want to stay in business,” said Powell, who is president of C.H. Powell. “That’s why we are working with our Affiliate Association partners to initiate local outreach efforts in their areas to ensure that both their members and the software vendors serving them are ready for ACE.” Powell will also work with government agencies on ways to facilitate export activity as part the National Export Initiative and will help familiarize new exporters on the processes involved, he said.
The CBP Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Cargo Release pilot will be expanded to include the truck mode of transportation, the agency said in a notice. The agency will seek new participants in the pilot program, which originally only applied to air transportation and now includes ocean and rail, it said.
CBP will begin to allow importers to certify Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Cargo Release pilot data elements through the transmission of the ACE Entry Summary, the agency said in a notice. The agency also added three new data elements that will be required in order to certify from ACE Entry Summary.
Coming regulatory changes at CBP will soon make the notion of district permits "a wholly irrelevant artifact," the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) said on its website. The NCBFAA recently made a point to make clear to its members that revisions to the broker permitting structure were in the works and industry engagement would be important (see 14042116) "While there appears to be strong sentiment to keep the current [district permitting system], that really is not an option," the group said.
Users that have the latest version of Java software are having problems with Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) reports, said CBP in a CSMS message. Such users will see an error message displayed inside a blank report’s tab after clicking the title of any ACE report, said CBP. "CBP has investigated the issue and learned of a setting inside the Java Control Panel that suppresses the error message and allows users to run reports successfully," the agency said. Instructions for fixing the problem within Java are (here).
LAS VEGAS -- The place for Remote Location Filing within the virtual Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) is yet to be decided at this point, said Brenda Brockman Smith, executive director of the ACE business office at CBP. Smith, who spoke at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference on April 9, also said she expects the agency to add some Food and Drug Administration (FDA) elements to the system before CBP begins to require all trade filing in ACE.
CBP should revise its regulations for customs brokers to expand the definition of "corporate compliance activity," the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) said in comments recently filed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). RILA's comments, filed in response to a DHS request for public input on regulatory changes it should consider (see 14022621), focused on a wide range of CBP regulations that the association said deserve review. The retailers were one of only a few commenters that raised customs issues with DHS.
CBP is looking into merchandise processing fees (MPF) problems for Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Entry Summaries filed with Chapter 98 numbers, said CBP. The agency said it has gotten some reports of filers receiving MPF errors for such filings since CBP's latest deployment of new features within ACE on April 5.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission should hold a dialogue with the trade community before it finalizes new entry documentation requirements, said a group of trade associations a letter to the commission dated March 14. CPSC proposed in May 2013 to require product safety compliance certificates to be filed with CBP at time of entry (see 13051018). That is a “significant change to current supply chain operations and will have a major adverse impact on businesses’ operations,” said the letter. The changes merit that CPSC hold a public form “as soon as possible,” said the trade groups. “It is important for the CPSC to fully understand how the current entry process works and how this change would not only impact the industry, but Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the CPSC as well,” it said.