U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message providing a projected timeline for decommissioning the Automated Manifest System (AMS) for rail and sea manifests and transitioning to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). CBP anticipates that the Federal Register Notice naming ACE as the only CBP-approved electronic data interchange (EDI) for the transmission of rail and sea manifests will be published by the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2012 and that rail and sea manifest capabilities for the AMS in the Automated Commercial System (ACS) will be decommissioned within six months of that publication date.
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.
At the December 7, 2011 COAC meeting, CBP officials provided an update on the status of the planned test of Automated Commercial Environment Simplified Entry (SE) in the air environment. Officials stated that CBP’s target date for the first SE filing is late January 2012. CBP also plans to test SE in the ocean and rail environments after M1 is deployed and hopes to soon include additional complexities (PGA entries, etc.) in the test.
Trade Support Network (TSN) Committee members are expected to meet on December 7, 2011 to discuss a number of Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) topics, including ongoing issues with Post Summary Correction (PSC), such as its functionality in the ACE Portal, the visibility of data elements for original entry summary filers, and the possibility of using the PSC framework to transition ACS drawback to ACE.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice stating that nine out of 40 applications were accepted in response to its November 9 notice seeking volunteers to participate in a test concerning Automated Commercial Environment Simplified Entry (SE) capability. The initial phase of the test will be open to entries filed in the air transportation mode only. According to CBP, the nine applicants accepted met all of the selection criteria in the November 9 notice.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is taking steps to conduct a test of Simplified Entry (SE) in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). This test will initially be for the air mode and will require 12 data elements, with three data elements being optional, and will be filed in lieu of the CBP Form 3461 electronic information. The current CBP Form 3461 consists of 27 data elements, while the Importer Security Filing (ocean) normally requires ten data elements. When the three lists of data elements are compared to one another, it appears that the SE data omits a number of CBP Form 3461 data elements (such as the description of merchandise), while borrowing heavily from the ISF data list.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a user guide on running Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) reports for rail and sea carriers. The guide provides information on basic functionality of the ACE Reports Tool and outlines detailed instructions on how to access available reports. Instructions address how to view standard reports, how to modify data fields within standard reports, and how to build fully customized reports from a blank slate. Additional documents on the ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea are available here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its 2011 Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) accomplishments fact sheet listing a total of 37 accomplishments from January to September 2011. Most recently, in September 2011, CBP deployed ACE functionality for monitoring the liquidation of entries and made progress on the Document Image System (DIS):
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other officials have discussed the agency's plans to automate the export process at the October 4, 2011 COAC1 meeting and the September and October Trade Support Network (TSN) monthly committee meetings. During the events, officials stated that in order to bring export filing into ACE, CBP has been working with Participating Government Agencies and the trade community to develop user requirements for an automated export manifest in each transport mode. CBP is also working on an interim export manifest as a paperless solution for the ocean mode.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (COAC) will meet on December 7, 2011 in Washington, D.C. There will be comment opportunities before and during the meeting, and the registration deadline to attend or listen to the webcast is December 5.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its monthly Automated Commercial Environment Updates for November 2011. While the update lists new statistics showing that the number of ACE trade user accounts and the size of revenue collections via Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS) continue to grow, it also indicates that a number of due dates for ACE functionality have been pushed back to later dates or are no longer specified.