U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted February 2012 user guides for the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) on antidumping and countervailing duty cases and messages, blanket declaration records (e.g. importer certifying statement, NAFTA certificate of origin), and entry banks for BRASS, FAST, and Rail Line Release.
In June 2011, the Canadian Border Services Agency announced the phased-in timeframe for increasing the use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) at time of interim accounting (PARS and RMD requests). CBSA has reposted Customs Notice 11-004 as effective February 1, EDI must be used for PARS/RMD releases of up to 500 invoice lines, up from the 250 invoice line requirement that took effect on September 1, 2011.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that it will conduct the next Customs Broker License Examination on Monday, April 2, 2012.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its draft agenda and 22 other documents for the upcoming Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) meeting on February 21, 2012, which include presentations, draft recommendations, and other documents on the role of the Broker, Simplified Entry, Bonds, the Global Supply Chain, and other topics.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the following user guides for the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE):
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a frequently asked questions and answers document to provide guidance to licensed Customs brokers on the submission of the Triennial Status Report and fee. The next triennial status report, in addition to a $100 fee, should be filed by February 29, 2012.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its February 2012 "Trade Transformation" document, which includes a modified flow diagram of the Simplified Entry process in the air cargo environment from pre-departure to arrival. The diagram has removed the CBP messaging icons and descriptors and instead more fully describes CBP's interaction with and messaging to filers and carriers throughout the Simplified Entry (SE) process. The updated version also no longer lists the locations for current and planned Centers of Excellence and Expertise.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the following documents on its "What's New" webpage regarding the C-TPAT and FAST programs (note that many of these documents have prior dates and appear to simply be reposted):
The Court of International Trade has ruled against U.S. Customs and Border Protection's claim that customs broker Robert E. Landweer & Co. was liable to pay a $30,000 penalty for filing entries with incorrect dumping duty deposit rates and incorrectly identifying the supplier of the merchandise. The CIT dismissed the case as CBP did not specify the customs regulations Landweer violated and therefore failed to sufficiently exhaust administrative remedies.