The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General has issued a follow-up letter on the recent "Independent Auditors' Report" issued by KPMG LLP on U.S. Customs and Border Protection's fiscal year 2010 internal controls for the financial reporting of its Information Technology activity. The letter details the "significant deficiency" that was found for CBP's IT and financial system controls in the following areas: access control, security management, segregation of duties, and financial system functionality, and lists recommendations for improvement.
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 has announced that new capabilities were deployed via the Automated Commercial Environment with respect to Importer Security Filing (ISF). These new capabilities include (i) importer access through ACE to the ISF progress reports that have to date only been available via email subscription and (ii) making ISF progress reports, previously available only to importers, now also available via ACE to ISF filers and sureties. In addition, importers who file 12 or fewer ISF transactions per year will now be able to file and track their ISF transactions directly via the ACE portal, without the need to file via the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
On May 26, 2011, the fiscal year 2012 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill was introduced in the House after being reported by the House Appropriations Committee. This bill would provide funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as well as other DHS agencies.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an updated version of its fact sheet on Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) periodic monthly statements (PMS). CBP states PMS simplify the processing of duties and fees for importers and brokers with ACE accounts.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing an additional 30 day comment period on a new proposed information collection, the Automated Commercial Environment Trade Survey, which it plans to submit to the Office of Management and Budget for review and approval.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an updated version of its fact sheet on ACE ocean and rail manifest capabilities (e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail, or M1). CBP states that ACE e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail will set the stage for ACE multi-modal manifest processing, which will bring all modes of transportation (sea, rail, air and truck) into a common ACE environment. It will also include the capabilities that will help identify high-risk shipments and facilitate processing of legitimate cargo.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a final rule, effective May 12, 2011, amending its regulations concerning the mandatory electronic transmission of inward foreign manifests for vessels transporting bulk and certain break bulk cargo to the U.S. to make several technical corrections, including removing obsolete language that refers to vessel carriers who do not transmit cargo declaration information electronically (non-automated carriers).
On May 5, 2011, officials from Customs and Border Protection1 and other agencies testified before a Senate Finance subcommittee2 on antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) fraud and duty evasion. CBP’s testimony included the actions it plans to take to stem the circumvention, while Senators criticized CBP’s efforts to date and announced plans to reintroduce legislation to strengthen AD/CV enforcement.
On April 14, 2011 at the annual U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Trade Symposium, representatives from CBP, Census, and the trade community discussed various developments related to the Administration’s National Export Initiative (NEI) and Export Control Reform Initiative.
On April 12, 2011, the Census Bureau released a report profiling U.S. importing and exporting companies from 2008 to 2009. This is Census' first report to include information regarding U.S. importers and also provides information on identified companies1 and the known value2 of their export or import transactions.