CBP Expects to Implement Rule Changes for Six ABI Application Identifiers on April 12, 2009
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing the expected implementation date for two rules in the Batch & Block Control Chapter of the ACE ABI CATAIR1 that will need to be adhered to for all messages for six ABI application identifiers, or fatal errors will result.
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The expected implementation date for these two chapter rules is April 12, 2009. CBP adds that it will notify the trade if there is a change to this date.
(CBP previously stated that the two chapter rules would require adherence no earlier than March 15, 2009.)
Two Chapter Rules Will Affect All ABI Filers
According to a previously issued CSMS message, the requirement to adhere to the two chapter rules will affect all automated ABI filers whether or not they will be participating and sending ACE entry summaries. The two rules will impact all ABI software packages capable of transmitting application identifiers TI and KI, even those not developing for ACE entry summary at this time.
List of Affected ABI Application Identifiers
The six affected ABI application identifiers are:
| AE Entry Summary Create/Update | CJ Census Warning Query |
| CW Census Warning Override | JC Entry Summary Query |
| KI Importer/Bond Query | TI Importer/Consignee Create/Update |
(As additional ABI application identifiers become subject to the two rules, they will be added to the ACE ABI Batch & Block Control Chapter.)
Details of the Two Chapter Rules That Must be Adhered To
The two chapter rules that must be adhered to effective April 12, 2009 are:
- The addition of the Application identifier to positions 26-27 of the Batch Control Header (Input A-Record) as a mandatory field.
- The values in the Block Control Trailer (Input Y record) for Processing District/Port Code, Filer Code, Application Identifier Code, and Processing Filer Office Code must be identical to those same values in the previous Block Control Header (B-Record).
CBP states that this functionality is now available for testing in the ACE Certification Environment and questions should be directed to client representatives.
(CBP noted that in the fall of 2007 KI and TI messages were rerouted to ACE for processing with the deployment of ESAR A1. At that time ABI filers were not required to make any changes to the format of messages they were sending.
In November 2008, CBP issued a CSMS message advising ABI developers of the posting of the new ACE ABI Batch & Block Control Chapter to the CBP Web site and indicated that the rules therein would apply only to the above-listed ABI application identifiers specified in the chapter.)
1Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Automated Broker Interface (ABI) Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR)
(See ITT's Online Archives or 02/20/09 news, 09022010, for BP summary announcing the upcoming changes.
See ITT's Online Archives or 03/09/09 news, 09030935 1, for BP summary announcing that CBP posted revised ACE ABI CATAIR documents, including the ABI Batch & Block Control chapter.
See ITT's Online Archives or 09/11/07 news, 07091105, for BP summary announcing ESAR A1 was deployed on September 9, 2007.See ITT's Online Archives or 02/17/09 news, 09021705, for BP summary announcing CBP will begin implementing ESAR A2.2 in spring 2009.)
CSMS 09-000126 (dated 03/13/09) available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17512&page=&srch_argv=09-000126&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby
ACE ABI Batch & Control chapter available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/automated/modernization/ace_edi_messages/catair_main/abi_catair/catair_chapters/abi_bb_control.ctt/abi_bb_control.doc