Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s pilot to test “core” non-Lacey Act data in the Automated Commercial Environment is now live and accepting participants for filings under the agency’s Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) and Veterinary Services (VS) programs, said APHIS officials during a webinar held jointly with CBP on Dec. 9. Two other programs, Biotechnology Regulatory Services and Animal Care, are not yet ready for piloting but will be “in the future,” said Sean Blount, APHIS’ acting assistant director for Quarantine Policy, Analysis and Support.

The National Association of Foreign Trade Zones (NAFTZ) continues to have major concerns with the schedule for mandatory use of the Automated Commercial Environment, it said in a Dec. 8 letter to CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske (here). A "general lack of understanding" related to FTZ reporting among the Partner Government Agencies adds to the trade association's worries for ACE, it said. The NAFTZ made a number of its concerns known in a letter last month that called for a delay to parts of the ACE rollout (see 1511190017).

The Food and Drug Administration is making changes to processes for participation in its Automated Commercial Environment filing pilot and modifying “the data that are required at the time of entry for admissibility,” said CBP in a CSMS message dated Dec. 9 (here). Effective immediately, FDA has removed the requirement for submitting a data element “template” for pre-validation, although it will still provide the template to assist filers and will “provide guidance and support” to “answer any questions,” said the message.

There’s still space for importers, customs brokers and software developers that want to participate in pilots of Environmental Protection Agency filing in the Automated Commercial Environment, said Roy Chaudet of EPA’s Office of Information Collection during a webinar held with CBP on Dec. 8. Among pilots that are limited to nine participants, tests for imports of non-road vehicles and engines and pesticide notices of arrival currently have around two each, and a pilot on hazardous waste exporters has four, said Chaudet. Ongoing pilots with unlimited participation include imports of on-road vehicles and engines and ozone depleting substances.

The Food and Drug Administration is “very close” to recognizing Canada as having an equivalent food safety system, with a determination possible in the next few months, said Dominic Veneziano, director of FDA’s import division, at a seminar hosted by the American Bar Association Dec. 7 in Washington. The move would largely exempt food imports from Canada from the requirements of FDA’s Foreign Supplier Verification Program.

CBP updated its list of Automated Commercial Environment technical issues on Dec. 1 (here). The "list is to inform ACE filers and other interested parties of the existing technical issues and when they are scheduled to be fixed (where possible)," said CBP in a recent CSMS message (here).

CBP also highlighted a new user guide the AESDirect transition to ACE (here). CBP and the Census Bureau began allowing for registration of export accounts over the summer (see 1506180016). Once ACE AESDirect is fully operational, the Census Bureau plans to discontinue the legacy AESDirect filing application, CBP said previously.

There's an issue with providing high volume air in-bond users the range of in-bond numbers required due to the inclusion of air in-bonds within the Automated Commercial Environment, said CBP. "To resolve this the air trade entities and CBP propose changing the way a valid 9 digit number’s check digit is calculated to add a plus 1, 2 or 3 on to the MOD 7 check digit. If not identified as one of these Air high volume in-bond please continue to use the current nine digit in-bonds with a MOD 7 check digit," CBP said in a CSMS message (here). "Due to this change a note in the Instructional Guidelines (IGs) for the Air CAMIR, the In-bond CATAIR, the ACS Cargo Release and the ACS Entry Summary to include this format have been made and posted to the website. If your programing validates the in-bond number you may need to make change to include this as a valid in-bond number." No ACE documentation for ACE Entry Release or ACE Entry Summary was required because they do "not note how a valid in-bond number is formulated," it said.

CBP added recent updates on the Automated Commercial Environment to its list of issues for the trade (here) on Nov. 18. CBP also provided links to a number of other ACE-related items in a CSMS message (here). Among those are the ACEopedia for November (here) and the adoption report for ACE in October (here). According to the adoption report, the ACE cargo release "submission rate grew from 8.3% in September to 10.2% in October." The low levels of cargo release submissions is a source of some concern at CBP ahead of the ACE transition dates (see 1510190017 and 1511050059).

The Treasury Department published its fall 2015 regulatory agenda for CBP (here), which lists no new trade-related rulemakings. The agenda lists Treasury's CBP rulemakings that are pending at the proposed, interim final, final, and completed stages, as well as rulemakings that are long-term actions. The agenda lists the regulation title; past regulation(s), if any; the timeframe for the next regulatory action(s), if any; a brief description of the regulation; and a contact party name and telephone number. The Department of Homeland Security also issued its spring 2015 regulatory agenda for CBP (see 1511200014).