U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated summary of changes for the Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR). Most recently, the following changes to Appendix A on Commodity Response Filing Messages have been posted.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted instructions and information on how to obtain a replacement of a previously issued refund check for those who have recently received a letter from the agency indicating that a CBP issued refund was returned to the U.S. Treasury as undeliverable and was canceled. CBP's instructions provide information on how to update an address with CBP, as well as how to receive a replacement check through Automated Clearinghouse (ACH).

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 15, 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 announced that the Buffalo Trade Support Team is in the process of moving and will be closed from mid-day Friday, March 16, 2012 until Monday, March 19, 2012 or Tuesday, March 20, 2012. In the interim, the following contacts at either the Detroit or Otay Mesa Client Rep Offices may be contacted for assistance:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the materials from its March 6-8, 2012 Trade Software Developer Technical Seminar at the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) meeting. During the seminar, CBP officials discussed programming changes for existing and new functionality scheduled to be delivered as part of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). Access all of the seminar materials here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its March 14, 2012 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 46, No. 12), which contains three notices of ruling actions, as follows:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that in approximately 6 months certain ABI applications will be transitioned to ACE as part of the ACE M1 Ocean and Rail Deployment. When this transition takes place, filers will no longer be able to transmit or receive data for the following ABI capabilities using ACS: (1) In-Bond transactions for ocean, rail, and truck using ABI Application Identifiers QP/WP, (2) Status Notifications using ABI Application Identifier NS, and (3) Broker Download information using ABI Application Identifier BD.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced the issuance of Harmonized System Update 2013 on changes to the 2012 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS). This update was created on March 15, 2012 and contains 11,6214 Automated Broker Interface (ABI) records and 23,379 harmonized tariff records.

The Port of Long Beach has announced that container trade volume at the Port dropped 15.2 percent overall in February 2012 compared to the same period in 2011. Imports were down 18.1 percent, and exports dipped 1.6 percent. According to the Port, the drop in imports is partly attributable to the early Chinese New Year. Import volumes typically fall following the New Year as factories in Asia close for a week or more during the holidays. Last year, the New Year fell on February 3 and the slow down was felt in the latter part of the month and into early March. This year, the New Year fell on January 23, putting the entire slow down period in February. Import containers accounted for 191,475 TEUs in February 2012 compared to 233,660 TEUs in February 2011 and export containers fell to 120,006 TEUs from 121,929 TEUs. Empty container moves were down 25 percent to 77,108 TEUs compared to 102,747 TEUs in February. Most empty containers are bound overseas.