U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a news release reminding members of the Free and Secure Trade program that all FAST cards are compliant with the new document requirements under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that went into effect on June 1, 2009.
CBP Acting Commissioner Ahern testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism on plans for border security and progress to date. (Testimony, dated 06/11/09, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/congressional_test/border_progress.xml)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS providing an updated ACE entry summary filing deployment schedule.
The World Customs Organization will hold a "Coordinated Border Management" forum on June 29-30, 2009 in Brussels, Belgium. The inter-agency and business forum will focus on the potential for establishing an effective and efficient coordinated border management system. (Notice, available at http://www.wcoomd.org/event.htm)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection will hold the first annual Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Northern Border Highway Carrier Conference on August 19, 2009 in Buffalo, NY.
CBP has issued the April 2009 ACE Trade Account Owner (TAO) update. The update covers topics such as the delay in ACE e-Manifest rejection functionality for e-Manifests submitted without WHTI-compliant document numbers, brokers responding to post summary requests for documents, CBP acceptable document formats, and the ESAR A2.2 entry summary deployment schedule. (TAO, dated May 2009, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/docs/17629_394708685/May_09_TAOFINAL.pdf)
According to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sources, APHIS is now working on processing the applications it received for participation in the Lacey Act Blanket Declaration Pilot Program. APHIS has not yet given CBP a list of those that have chosen not to participate in the program and whose Line Release/BRASS C4 codes will be deactivated. (CBP was not expected to deactivate any codes until it got APHIS' list.) (See ITT's Online Archives or 05/29/09 news, 09052905, for BP summary announcing that pilot program submissions were to be post marked by May 30, 2009.)
CBP has issued a news release announcing that it is providing supporting documentation on its website for the new ACE entry summary process it successfully piloted in Buffalo last month and in Chicago, Laredo and Long Beach. (See ITT's Online Archives or 05/28/09 news, 09052805, for previous BP summary announcing the availability of these documents.)(News release, dated 06/01/09, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/06012009_3.xml)
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative informed compliance period that was recently announced will be applied to ACE e-Manifests as well.
According to CBP sources, the 102 penalty mitigation guidelines are currently under legal review and are expected to be released soon. (See ITT's Online Archives or 05/07/09 news, 09050710, for BP summary of a CBP official stating that the guidelines should be released in a few weeks.)