At the April 2008 National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's Annual Conference, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official spoke about the Action Plan for Import Safety1 and CBP's initiatives for improving import safety.
During the May 9, 2008 meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC), CBP officials discussed a variety of issues related to customs bonds, highlights of which include:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of May 19, 2008. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, tobacco, certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly TRQ/TPL commodity report available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/trade_programs/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing that, effective immediately, the ACE Modernization information section of CBP's Web site can no longer be accessed using Quicklinks. An attachment to CBP's CSMS message includes instructions for accessing the ACE Modernization information section. (CSMS 08-000087, dated 05/19/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17095&page=&srch_argv=08-000087&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued ACE Portal Accounts and Truck Manifest CSMS messages announcing that as of 8:33 a.m. on May 18, 2008 ACE Portal users were unable to login in. CBP sources state that this problem was fixed on the afternoon of May 18, 2008. (CSMS s 08-000085 & 08-000086, dated 05/18/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/csms.asp)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a fact sheet on the Automated Commercial Environment multi-modal manifest (MMM) capability, which will expand ACE to include all modes of transportation and provide a single, automated system for cargo control and release.
During the May 9, 2008 meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC), CBP officials discussed plans to change the in-bond process.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ACE Portal Accounts and ACE Reports CSMS message announcing that it will soon introduce ad hoc reporting capabilities as an enhancement to Automated Commercial Environment reports.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI CSMS message stating that the current address listed on "HTS Tape Order Form" in Appendix J of the CATAIR is no longer valid. CBP is in the process of updating this form in the CATAIR, however, effective immediately, use the address below:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its report to Congress on the Automated Commercial Environment for the first quarter of fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007). The report provides an update on ACE accomplishments, challenges, fiscal status, and upcoming program milestones.