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 October 4, 2011 in El Paso, TX from 1 pm to 6 pm.
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.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources state that the agency is still planning to discontinue the use of Post-Entry Amendments (PEAs) for entry summaries filed in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), effective September 22, 2011. For entry summaries filed after that date, only Post Summary Corrections (PSCs) will be allowed in ACE.
On September 7, 2011, the Senate Appropriations Committee amended, approved, and reported the fiscal year 2012 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 2017), which would provide $410 million more for CBP than was enacted in FY 2011, including funds for cargo scanning pilots. In its report, the Committee urges CBP to encourage or require brokers to develop “know your customer” programs, consider a U.S. agent requirement for foreign importers, etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) user guide document providing step-by-step instructions for brokers and self-filers on creating and maintaining entry banks via the ACE Portal. CSMS Message #11-000208 providing this user guide is available here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a document providing a list of contacts for the Trade Support Network (TSN)'s Committee, Subcommittee, Trade Ambassador, and Technical Advisory Group. The TSN is a group of trade representatives who provide input to CBP on the design and development of modernization projects, such as the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and other projects.
At the August 18, 2011 COAC1 meeting, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials provided an update on the status of various Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) projects and International Trade Data System (ITDS) initiatives that are in development.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is advising the trade of future changes to the ABI Harmonized Tariff Extract reference file and to the ABI HTS Query transaction records to display new output records that will identify tariff numbers that have PGA (Participating Government Agency) indicators associated with the tariff number. CBP is also providing the formats for the new record identifiers, for trade programming purposes.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a press release on CBP Commissioner Bersin's opening of the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee’s (COAC) second meeting held in Long Beach, CA on August 18, 2011. At the meeting, Commissioner Bersin emphasized that partnerships with other countries, other governmental agencies (OGAs), and the trade community are essential for further success in moving forward. Meeting participants also discussed the management by account pilot programs, the Center of Excellence and Expertise (CEE) and Account Executive, which will likely become part of the CEE on October 1. Other topics on the agenda included simplified entry and processing, the role of the broker revision project, and updates on the progress of work being done on the land border security initiatives, air cargo security, Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing that registration is now partially open for CBP's free webinar on ACE Post Summary Corrections that will be held on September 1, 2011. CBP is also accepting questions by August 24, 2011 in order to tailor this webinar to specific areas of interest.
On August 16, 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted an update on the status of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). CBP outlines and provides certain statistics on deployed ACE capabilities, such as ACE Secure Data Portal, Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS), Participating Government Agency access to ACE, electronic filing of e-Manifest: Truck, entry summaries, and Importer Security Filing (ISF).