U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that Participating Government Agency (PGA) indicator programming has been added to ACS to enhance its ABI HTS Update and Query functionality. However, no tariff numbers have a PGA indicator yet (for those tariff numbers that call for one), so there will be no "VL" or "WL" records sent out to indicate that a tariff number has a PGA requirement.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has newly posted the recordings and presentation slides for two webinars, one on ACE Courtesy Notice of Liquidation (October 12, 2011) and the other on Practical Suggestions to Mitigate Cargo Security Risks (October 6, 2011). These webinars are part of a series of live trade outreach webinars that CBP is hosting. Each webinar is recorded and made available for subsequent on-demand viewing. Topics of previous webinars available for viewing include the role of the broker, account management restructuring, ACE Post Summary Corrections, simplified entry and financial processes, etc. Another announcement regarding the ACE Courtesy Notice Report was announced in CSMS #11-000265, available here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that the 2012 annual user fee of $138 for each customs broker permit and national permit held by an individual, partnership, association, or corporation is due by January 20, 2012.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials stated at the September 2011 annual NCBFAA conference that the agency is currently using the Document Imaging System internally for emailed single transaction bonds. However, they are working with select individuals to develop a plan to expand its use, and hope to issue a Federal Register notice announcing a pilot in a few months on regularly accepting STBs via DIS.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that the following Customs broker licenses, as well as all associated permits, have been revoked with prejudice:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that the following Customs broker licenses and all associated permits are cancelled without prejudice:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its Automated Broker Interface (ABI) Error Message Dictionary, a table containing detailed explanations of the error messages that are generated when a filer's transmission is rejected by ABI.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its "Using the ACE Reports Tool" user guide document, which provides instructions for importer, broker and surety ACE portal account types on running ACE reports for truck carriers. With this update, CBP has added AM-100 to the list of available reports contained in Appendix A of the document. AM-100 (for importers only) is the ACE Courtesy Notice of Liquidation report which displays liquidation information for two weeks in the future, similar to information previously mailed to the importer on the CF 4333A.
The Court of International Trade has ruled that licensed customs broker Guillermo Lizarraga is entitled to reimbursement of attorney fees and other expenses after successfully challenging U.S. Customs and Border Protection's 2008 deactivation and suspension of his entry filer code for alleged misuse. The CIT states Lizarraga is entitled to reimbursement as CBP's1 position was not substantially justified and because there are no special circumstances that make such an award unjust.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS #11-000253 to announce that the 2011 ACE Customer Satisfaction Survey is being extended until midnight October 26, 2011 instead of October 19. CBP encourages all importers, brokers, carriers and other trade community users of the system to take the voluntary 5-10 minute survey, so that it can formally gauge the areas where ACE is doing well and where improvement is needed. A large response will ensure that there is greater statistical validity to the results. ACE portal users can access the survey here.