ACE filers continue to face downtime and slowdown issues worse than those encountered in the legacy Automated Commercial System, and several functionalities essential to the trade community are still unavailable, including some that were available in the legacy system before it was mostly shut down July 23, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a position paper (here). “Much remains to be done” before the implementation of ACE can be declared a success, with performance of some aspects of the new electronic filing regime still lagging behind that of the ACS, it said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is continuing its push for the EU to boost its de minimis level for imports to the equivalent of the U.S. threshold of $800, a spokesperson for the USTR said in an email. “We want the EU to increase their de minimis for goods trade (currently 150 euros) to our level of $800,” the spokesperson said. Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Dan Mullaney was in Brussels last week for the 14th round of negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, where he said that a higher de minimis was an efficiency achievable through the pact.
The use of ACE by the Environmental Protection Agency will likely become mandatory in the "fall time frame at the earliest," Roy Chaudet of EPA said during a July 7 webinar about Partner Government Agencies (PGAs) and the move to ACE. That agency is running several pilots including for non-road vehicle imports and pesticide notices of arrival, ozone-depleting substances and Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) submissions (see 1606090020). "In terms of our pilots ending and our reporting requirements put in place, those will all be later this year," he said.
CBP implemented several important pieces of the customs reauthorization law during the first 100 days since enactment, CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said in an overview of the efforts (here). Since President Barack Obama signed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (see 1602240042), "CBP has been working hard to implement the law’s key provisions, with a strong focus on bolstering our agency’s trade enforcement priorities," Kerlikowske said. He pointed to recently signed withhold release orders (see 1603310034 and 1605310019) for "certain shipments of soda ash, potassium, and Stevia products made with convict and forced labor in China." Those "enforcement actions rightly place CBP at the forefront of promoting human rights, and send a powerful signal to manufacturers and producers around the world," he said. The Office of Trade also implemented "a new process for swiftly and thoroughly reviewing allegations of evasion of Antidumping/Countervailing duty laws," which "helps domestic manufacturers and companies hurt by unfair, illegal trade practices," he said. Also notable are the new Trade Enforcement Task Force (see 1605030032), an increase to the de minimis value threshold (see 1603100010) and the formal recognition of the Centers of Excellence and Expertise, he said.
The Agricultural Marketing Service issued a final rule to end a de minimis exemption from marketing order assessments on importers of cotton (here). Under the agency’s rule, importers of cotton would no longer be exempt from paying assessments when the total assessed on any entry line is $2 or less. AMS said the exemption was originally put in place because the cost of collecting assessments was sometimes greater than the amount collected, but automation and other changes have decreased collection costs. The change is effective July 15
CBP and Food and Drug Administration officials outlined transition procedures for the June 15 ACE mandatory use date for most FDA cargo release and entry summary submissions, during a June 9 webinar conducted by the agencies and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. CBP will on June 15 begin rejecting ACE entries that are flagged for FDA but are not accompanied by partner government agency (PGA) data, a CBP official said. However, the legacy ACE remains online and available as a fallback until July 23, and CBP will handle ACS filers on a “case-by-case basis” until that date, sending error messages and reaching out to non-ACE filers to get them aboard, he said. As CBP has previously said (see 1605270002), the agency will shut off ACS on July 23 and filers will “no longer have the ACS alternative,” the official said.
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CBP released a fact sheet on the recently increased de minimis value threshold (here). Effective since March 10 (see 1603100010), CBP increased the de minimis limit from $200 to $800. "All existing processes and restrictions for merchandise shipments remain the same" as before the value increased, CBP said. "Even in the case of low value shipment, CBP has the right to require a formal entry on any shipment where additional information, bonding, or protection is required," it said. There's been some concern as to how the de minimis increase will affect work for brokers and importers (see 1605160030).
PHOENIX – Following the July 23 mandatory use date for most remaining entry types, the Automated Commercial System will no longer be available for entry and entry summary filings even in cases of ACE outages, said Deborah Augustin, executive director of the ACE Business Office at CBP. After all the agencies that use ACS complete the transition to ACE on July 23, CBP will begin to dismantle ACS, she said while speaking at the West Coast Trade Symposium on May 26. "So, ACS then is no longer available as a back up for processing," she said. Field operations and downtime procedures may instead come into effect if there are issues with ACE, she said.
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