CBP has posted an updated version of its Public Automated Commercial System FIRMS (Facilities Information and Resources Management Systems) report that is organized by port code and alphabetically by company name.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a news release on its completed draft study analyzing potential environmental and socioeconomic effects of current and potential future border security activities along the U.S. Northern Border, which is currently available for a 45-day public review period. CBP will review and incorporate comments into a final programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS). Public meetings for the draft PEIS will be held in cities along the Northern Border during fall of 2011 and in Washington, D.C. on October 10, 2011. More information about the public meetings, the project, how to obtain a copy of the draft PEIS is available here. A copy of the PEIS may also be requested by calling (866) 760-1421. (See ITT's Online Archives or 09/16/11 news, 11091624, for BP summary of Federal Register notice on the 13 public meetings to be held on this study.)

CBP has posted an updated version of its TRQ/TPL "threshold to fill" list, a quick reference to monitor TRQs and TPLs that are approaching their restraint limit or have filled their in-quota (low) rate. The list is divided into two sections: those that are at least 85% filled and those that are filled.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted updates on its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) as of September 2011. CBP outlines and provides certain statistics on deployed ACE capabilities, such as e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1), Importer Security Filing (ISF), Participating Government Agency (PGA) access to ACE, etc. CBP also provides an update on the project status of: (i) ITDS initiatives, which include PGA interfaces/interoperability, PGA Message Set, and Document Image System; (ii) full deployment of M1, which is scheduled for the winter of 2012; and (iii) Cargo Release.

In CSMS #11-000217, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reminds that trade that effective September 22, 2011, the use of ABI to file Post Summary Corrections for ACE entry summaries types 01 and 03 will be mandatory. The paper Post Entry Amendments (PEAs) will no longer be allowed for such entry summaries filed in ACE.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued the following news releases:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the weekly foreign currency exchange rate multipliers for the week ending September 16, 2011.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its spreadsheet of ESAR A2.2 programming issues. No new programming issues have been added to the "Open" list and no items have been moved to the "Closed" list.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a summary of changes for the Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR) that were effective August 17, 2011. Appendix C on ISO Country Codes was changed to add "SS" as the country code for South Sudan.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS #11-000215 announcing that it has fixed the problem with an email exchange server, which began on Sunday, September 11, 2011. The problem had caused Importer Security Filing (ISF) single transaction bonds and BAPLIE transactions received by email to not process. CBP states that with the resolution of the problem the mail boxes have been restored and all new emails are being processed. CBP is working through the backlog of emails, which should be resolved within a few days.