Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)

The progress of customs legislation and the transition to the Automated Commercial Environment has drawback processes poised for some major updates, some over a decade in the making, said industry members during a June 2 panel discussion. The customs bills, now in various stages, includes a number of ideas supported by the Trade Support Network, including the elimination of rulings on drawback issues and an eight digit HTS substitution standard, said Bobby Waid, CEO of Charter Brokerage, who spoke on the panel at the American Association of Exporters and Importers conference. Recent work toward simplified process (see 1506010021) also includes potential updates to the program.

While the Automated Commercial Environment transition remains the focus of CBP's trade efforts, the agency is also considering some new initiatives to follow the move to ACE, said Cynthia Whittenburg, CBP executive director for trade policy and programs on June 1. Whittenburg discussed several of the items the agency is looking at while on a panel during an American Association of Exporters and Importers conference. Whittenburg pointed to updated definitions for identifier codes and account-based simplified processes among potential future work.

TACOMA, Wash. -- CBP will put on hold some customs broker modernization efforts in order to consider a more expansive revision to the regulations, said CBP Assistant Commissioner Brenda Smith while meeting with reporters during the agency's West Coast Trade Symposium on May 27. While CBP recently announced progress in the required regulatory process, the agency will instead take another look at available options, she said. Smith said she could not discuss the specific problems within the package that resulted in the pause.

Some five months out from the Nov. 1 deadline for cargo release in the Automated Commercial Environment, filers and software developers are shifting into overdrive to implement Partner Government Agency (PGA) message set requirements, said customs brokers and programmers in interviews. Given the large volume of imports regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, that agency’s release of its final Supplemental Guide on May 12 marks an important step, followed closely by the draft release of CBP’s ACE Business Rules implementation guide three days later.

The Treasury Department published its spring 2015 regulatory agenda for CBP (here), which lists a planned interim final rule that would establish the Automated Commercial Environment as the only means of electronic entry filing. There's also a new rulemaking listed that would relax documentation requirements for drawback claims.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 1505220006).

CBP appears to be "on track" to meet the milestones it set for the implementation of the Automated Commercial Environment, said the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General in a newly released report (here). With four of seven ACE deployments completed, CBP is on track to finish ACE by the 2016 deadline and meet other milestones, said the OIG. "However, CBP has not ensured the internal control environment has kept pace with the rapid deployment of the ACE program," it said in the report. "Specifically, CBP has not conducted risk assessments to identify potential gaps in data reliability, and has not fully developed and implemented performance measures for the program."

CBP posted a draft version of long-awaited Automated Commercial Environment cargo release business processes on May 15 (here). The draft is a "living document" and CBP will consider submitted comments for the next draft, said the agency (here). The processes document is expected to function as the "cornerstone" for both the trade and port personnel, an agency official recently said (see 1504270018).

CBP added several new Partner Government Agency Message Set Implementation Guidelines, it said in a CSMS message (here). Among the new agencies "ready for coding" for the Automated Commercial Environment (here) are:

CBP posted the transcript (here) and presentation (here) from an April 29 webinar on Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) air manifests. CBP recently said it would allow for some flexibility in the transition to ACE for air manifest (see 1504300015).

Importers must report an Employer Identification Number, Social Security Number or CBP-assigned number for Ultimate Consignee identification on entries valued less than $2,500 for Automated Commercial Environment entry summaries, said CBP (here). The Ultimate Consignee's identification number may be reported as all zeroes on informal ACE entry summaries, it said. "Currently, ACE entry summary does not have the ability or fields to allow for reporting of the Ultimate Consignee's name and address" and there are "no changes to reporting requirements for the Ultimate Consignee's identification on informal entries processed in" ACE, it said.