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.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing the issuance of Harmonized System Update 1107. This update contains 28,916 Automated Broker Interface records and 4,758 harmonized tariff records.
The Government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices for Nov 29 - Dec 2, 2011 (note that some will also be given separate headlines):
U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources have informed Broker Power that the pass rate for the October 2011 customs broker license exam was 25%. There were no problem questions.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the draft agenda for its Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) meeting on December 7, 2011. CBP has also posted the following presentations, draft recommendations, and other documents (note that if the links below have expired, these documents are available here):
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced the completion of the Broker Self-Assessment Outreach Pilot (BSA Pilot), a voluntary partnership with the customs brokerage community, which began in July 2009. CBP has decided to end the BSA pilot without a plan to proceed with another self-assessment type model; however, CBP and NCBFAA will pursue other avenues to collaborate on trade modernization efforts.
On November 29, 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued its November 2011 ACE Trade Account Owner (TAO) Update. The TAO provides information on a number of ACE and general trade developments, including the AM-100 report for importers (which replaced the mailed courtesy notices of liquidation), Post Summary Corrections, FMCSA status messages to ACE Truck e-Manifest filers, FAST cards, and Simplified Entry.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is requesting comments by January 24, 2012 on an existing information collection concerning Vessel Manifest Confidentiality. CBP is proposing to extend the expiration date of this information collection with an increase to its estimate of the number of total annual responses1.