CBP Approves Design for ACE e-Manifest: Air for Advance Cargo Information Purposes (Expected to Begin in Summer 2009)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice announcing that it has approved the design for Automated Commercial Environment air electronic manifest (ACE e-Manifest: Air) for advance cargo information purposes, making way for development to begin.
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ACE e-Manifest: Air is expected to begin in summer 2009 following the deployment of ACE e-Manifest: Sea and Rail for advance cargo information purposes in fall 2008. (See ITT's Online Archives or 03/05/08 news, 08030505, for most recent BP summary on e-Manifest: Sea and Rail.)
ACE e-Manifest: Air to Include "Broker Download" Feature
CBP states that ACE e-Manifest: Air will include a feature known as "broker download." Originally developed for the rail industry, broker download will allow an air carrier to include a broker filer code within air waybill data that is sent to CBP.
The ACE e-manifest: Air feature will then send a copy of the entire air waybill to the designated customs broker, which will promote "prefiling" of cargo release data by the broker.
ACE Portal will Allow Officers to Obtain Faster/Easier Access to Entry Information
According to CBP, officers will use the ACE Secure Data Portal to obtain faster and easier access to cargo and commercial entry information. ACE will help CBP officers identify shipments that pose a risk by providing screening and targeting results. Furthermore, ACE will allow officers to place holds on suspicious cargo in advance of conveyance arrival and will help protect from certain threats.
The ready access to and effective use of manifest data and associated entry, entry summary and targeting information will help CBP officers and participating government agency personnel efficiently complete cargo processing and expedite release for legitimate cargo shipments.
Sea, Rail, Air, Truck Multi-Modal Manifest
CBP has previously stated that ACE e-Manifest: Sea and Rail will set the stage for multi-modal processing; and ACE e-Manifest: Truck is already currently operational at 99 U.S. land border ports.
According to CBP, the combination of rail, sea, air and truck commercial cargo processing into an integrated, ACE multi-modal manifest system will allow CBP to replace the three existing manifest systems1 that have been in use for the past two decades.
CBP and the trade community will use the multi-modal manifest capability to move foreign imports, U.S. exports and in-bond transportation goods into or through the U.S. by all modes of transportation, including pipelines.
Once CBP completes its modernization effort, importers, exporters, customs brokers and transportation providers will use one automated system, ACE, for all of their commercial processing needs.
1CBP sources have previously identified these three systems as Ocean/Rail Automated Manifest System (AMS); Air AMS; and ACE e-Manifest: Truck (ACE e-Manifest: Truck will move from its own platform to the multi-modal platform).
CBP notice (dated 03/03/08) available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/whats_new/ace_air_emanifest.xml