U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message providing a projected timeline for decommissioning the Automated Manifest System (AMS) for rail and sea manifests and transitioning to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). CBP anticipates that the Federal Register Notice naming ACE as the only CBP-approved electronic data interchange (EDI) for the transmission of rail and sea manifests will be published by the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2012 and that rail and sea manifest capabilities for the AMS in the Automated Commercial System (ACS) will be decommissioned within six months of that publication date.
In December 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated its eight Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on voided Importer ID input Records (CBP Form 5106), making one substantive change. In the third FAQ, CBP clarifies that acceptable proof of an Employee Identification Number (EIN) includes a preprinted document that is received from the IRS.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that on Monday, December 12, 2011, Occupy Wall Street Oakland (OWS Oakland) is expected to join cities including San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland and Tacoma for a West Coast port shutdown. Organizers are planning to stage mass protests to shut down (blockade) west coast ports similar to the shutdown action taken at the Port of Oakland on November 2, 2011. The Port of Oakland has advised CBP that the decision to shut down various terminals will not be made prior to December 9 at 1400.
At the December 7, 2011 COAC meeting, CBP officials provided an update on the status of various “Role of the Broker” projects. According to officials, CBP is preparing regulatory changes to (i) establish continuing education requirements for brokers, (ii) clarify that customs business must be conducted within the territory of the U.S., and (iii) establish bona fides for broker vetting of powers of attorney. CBP is also pursuing a statutory amendment to change from triennial to biannual status reporting and is working on a program to allow brokers to pre-certify importers for the Importer Self Assessment (ISA) program.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection states that users can now begin running the new “Multi-Modal Manifest” reports. CBP had requested that users not run these reports after e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1) was deployed in August 2011. However, the data conversion has now been completed and users can run them.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.
Trade Support Network (TSN) Committee members are expected to meet on December 7, 2011 to discuss a number of Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) topics, including ongoing issues with Post Summary Correction (PSC), such as its functionality in the ACE Portal, the visibility of data elements for original entry summary filers, and the possibility of using the PSC framework to transition ACS drawback to ACE.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection states that rail carriers will soon be sending rail manifests into the ACE M1 production environment. This requires that all brokers or self-filing importers participating in Rail Line Release create Entry Banks in ACE. The ACE Entry Bank numbers must be unique and cannot overlap with the ACS Entry Bank numbers. CBP warns that anyone currently receiving releases using Rail Line Release must create their ACE Entry Banks using the ACE Secure Data Portal as soon as possible. Refer to the User Guide in CSMS #11-000208 dated 09/02/11 for more information, or reach out to your Port Entry Bank contact.(CSMS #11-000302, dated 12/05/11)
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for November 28 -- December 2, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
Mexico Customs (Aduanas) has posted information on its recently rolled out trusted shipper program, Nuevo Esquema de Empresas Certificadas (NEEC), which builds on the existing trusted trader program for “Certified Companies” by adding minimum security requirements, tax obligations, etc. The program is currently being rolled out for importers and exporters, and Aduanas is expected to begin reviewing applications in January 2012.