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CBP Collected 25% of Total Duties and Fees Through ACE in April

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted a notice to its web site announcing that it collected $510.6 million in duties and fees through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) monthly payment feature-which is an estimated 25% of the total duties and fees collected by CBP.

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CBP notes that ACE collections increased by more than $100 million in the April reporting period and now total over $4 billion since the first ACE monthly payment was made in July 2004.

According to CBP, ACE is the commercial trade processing system being developed by CBP to enhance border security and expedite legitimate trade. With participation in ACE, importers and brokers are paying duties and fees monthly, instead of on a transaction-per-transaction basis. ACE monthly statements can also streamline accounting and report processing, and provide an electronic record to trace import activities.

Since its inception in July 2004, CBP has collected the following amount of duties and fees for various months through its ACE monthly payment feature:

Date of Dutiable EntriesDuty and Fee Payments
July 200411$84,000
August 200553,147$232 million
April 2006353,887$510.6 million

CBP notes that information about how to establish an ACE account is available by e-mailing CBP at acenow@dhs.gov, and updates for ACE application information are available on CBP's web site at http://www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/.

CBP press release on ACE monthly duty collection, dated 05/05/2006, available at http://www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/05052006.xml