Preparing for ACE Reautomation/Redesign of the Entry Process Under ESAR Release A2 (Part IV - Pre-Release, Release, and Entry Summary Preparation/Transmission)

(Although these two individuals are members of the Trade Support Network (TSN), they note that their pamphlet is not approved, endorsed, or sanctioned in any way by CBP or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).)

This is Part IV of a multi-part series of summaries of this pamphlet and contains excerpts from the pamphlet's sections on operational changes for pre-release, release, and entry summary preparation and transmission. See future issues of ITT for additional summaries.

The authors state that the pamphlet focuses on what entry preparers and filers will need to prepare for the substantial changes coming with ESAR Release A2; currently expected in early 2008. Trade sources have previously stated that the byword for ESAR A2 should be "reautomate or perish" in light of the reautomation and, in some cases, redesign of the entry process which will occur with ESAR A2.

Pre-Release

The e-Bonds programs will be in place to allow for the following: checking bond sufficiency, checking if preparer has authority to file bond, processing continuous e-Bonds, and processing single transaction e-Bonds.

Agents for sureties will be able to file bonds electronically using Automated Broker Interface (ABI), or manually using the ACE Secure Data Portal. Sureties, however, must have first given them authorization

With the bond information stored electronically, CBP will be able to do a bond sufficiency check at the time the entry is processed.

Release

ACE will continue to allow the option of using a two-step process (Entry, followed by Entry Summary)

When release is "certified" from the CBP-7501 dataset,

• it is expected that no partial data transmissions will be allowed. If the certified CBP-7501 data is used, the "Declaration" will be part of the transmission.
• Receipt and acceptance of Entry Summary combined with release by CBP will act as a trigger to: transfer the duties, taxes and other fees (DTF) due to the Finance system, and require all subsequent changes in the CBP-7501 to be done using the post-summary correction (PSC) process.
• "Full replace" of the CBP-7501 data set can be done until the shipment is released. After that, once accepted, all changes to the CBP-7501 data must be through PSC.

When a two-step process is used (CBP-3461 data followed by CBP-7501 data):

• The CBP-7501 data must be filed, including the Declaration, within the 10 working-days period to avoid late filing penalties.
• "Full replace" of the CBP-7501 data set can be done until the shipment is released. After that, once accepted, all changes to the CBP-7501 data must be through PSC. (This is the same as when release is "certified" from the CBP-7501 dataset.)

Entry Summary (CBP-7501) Preparation and Transmission

The 10 working (business) day cycle will remain for submission of all Entry Summary data (or paper Entry summaries) regardless of whether paid individually, by Daily Statement, by periodic monthly statement (PMS) or where no payment is required. Currently PN (ACH authorization) is utilized to complete the Entry Summary Declaration. In ACE the PN will only be used for financial purposes.

Census Warnings: A sophisticated system is being developed in ACE to allow better communications between ABI filers and CBP with respect to the Department of Commerce census parameters:

• A new business process using override codes will be developed.

o CBP upon receipt of an entry summary transmission reviews and validates each entry summary against a set of criteria maintained by Census. If the values are out of range of the census parameters, a warning message is issued to the filer.

o The trade then has 2 options: (1) re-submit the values contained within the entry summary, or (2) send in the appropriate census override code for the data that is out of range

o The Trade will also be able to submit override codes as part of their initial entry summary submission. This can be used where the Trade is confident from past experience that the data will generate a census warning. ACE will determine if valid override code(s) were provided. If the answer to this is "no" the Trade will receive an error response. If valid override code(s) were provided the census warning will be removed from the entry summary and the override code(s) will be written to the entry summary line item.

o There were discussions about providing Census with the ability to create importer specific parameters.

Quota/visa processing will be enhanced in ACE. The system will better understand the relationships between categories and HTS numbers. There will also be a more sophisticated (read: automated) system to handle closing and over-subscriptions.

Licenses, permits, certifications will be enhanced in ACE. ACE should recognize what is needed in a better way and, hopefully, give better feedback to the ABI user.

Flagging for Reconciliation will be allowed both at the time of filing as well as via PSC. ACE reconciliation flagging will be at the line item levels. Flagging at the header will have the effect of flagging all the line items.

Importer Activity Summary Statement (IASS) will be part of ESAR Release A3 and not dealt with in the A2 release. However, the requirements have been reviewed and, where necessary, accommodated in this release.

Additional party information will be required for antidumping/countervailing duty cases to record the shipper/exporter for each line.

(See ITT's Online Archives or 06/22/06, 06/23/06, and 06/27/06 news, 06062205, 06062310, and 06062715, for Parts I-III.)

Trade User's Guide for ACE-ESAR Release 2 pamphlet (dated 02/09/06) available via email by sending a request to documents@brokerpower.com.