Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)

For over six years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has provided import data for a specific time period to companies who submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Office of Strategic Trade (OST). This collection of data is called Importer Trade Activity (ITRAC) and is comprised of about 20 elements of company-specific import data. CBP states that the information is only provided to the Importer of Record or those authorized by the Importer of Record to submit the FOIA request on its behalf. ¹

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice announcing that the fourth group of land border ports to become mandatory for the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) electronic manifest: Truck (e-Manifest: Truck¹) for advance cargo information purposes will be those in Vermont and New Hampshire as well as the remaining land border ports in North Dakota - St. John, Fortuna, Ambrose, Carbury, Noonan, Dunseith, Sherwood, Antler, Northgate, Westhope, and Portal, effective July 12, 2007.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a notice announcing that it has completed the necessary programming changes for automated filing through the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) of Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) Act of 2006 entries. CBP states that all claims for preferential tariff treatment under the Haitian HOPE Act may be filed via an ABI entry. For shipments of apparel, the Haitian HOPE Act visa number should be reported in the proper format in the visa field.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message warning about problems with the new Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) reporting tool and Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS).

In February 2007, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) posted to its Web site a notice which announced the phased enforcement of mandatory Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) electronic manifest: Truck (e-Manifest: Truck) for advance cargo information purposes at all land border ports in California, New Mexico, and Texas beginning April 19, 2007.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has made available on its Web site Web-based training (WBT) courses for the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice stating that the tariff rate quota (TRQ) for peanuts from Argentina and Other Countries, provided for in HTS Chapter 12, Additional U.S. Note (AUSN) 2, which opened on Monday, April 2, 2007, did not oversubscribe at opening. Therefore, all entries presented at opening have been charged and may be released. (QBT-07-526, dated 04/04/07, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/qbts/qbt2007/07_526.ctt/07_526.doc)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site an updated version of its lengthy document on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled "ACE Frequently Asked Questions."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a user manual entitled "Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) the ACE Way."

The following are documents which CBP updates frequently (weekly, monthly, etc.). Updates are listed under "What's New" on its Web site: