U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site separate Automated Commercial Environment Portal Reports Dictionaries for importers, brokers, carriers, and participating government agencies.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a Rail Manifest CSMS message announcing that early in the morning of April 10, 2008, it began to experience a back-up in the MQ channel that handles rail messages.
At the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America's Annual Conference, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Basham stated that he expects CBP to publish a final rule in Summer 2008 to require Security Filing (SF) information from importers and additional information from carriers (10+2) for vessel (maritime) cargo before it is brought into the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its April 2008 Customs Broker Examination to its Web site. CBP has not yet posted the answer key for this exam. (Exam, posted 04/07/08, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/trade_programs/broker/broker_exam/exam_and_key_downloads/apr2008_exam.ctt/apr2008_exam.doc.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site the minutes from the February 13, 2008 meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC) in Tucson, AZ. (COAC meeting minutes, posted 04/07/08, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/trade_outreach/coac/meetings/coac_final.ctt/coac_final.doc.)
A “sophisticated” Internet scam stole users’ identities using Craigslist and made more than $66,000 in seven weeks, the SEC said. One or more “unknown traders” ran a bogus job ad for “AWE Trading,” ostensibly a brokerage in Latvia, the commission said. Supposedly to check respondents’ backgrounds, the crooks requested personal information that they used to open stock-trading accounts at Interactive Brokers LLC. The thieves also gained unauthorized online access to accounts of customers of various retail brokerage firms and purchased and sold at least 18 securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, the SEC said. In other agency news, a new SEC Web page offers interactive data on mutual funds. The Mutual Fund Reader site posts material from funds on cost, risk, investment aims and strategies and historical performance. Information is in XBRL, a language that labels companies’ financial and other data for search, comparison and analysis.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a Truck Manifest and Automated Broker Interface CSMS message stating that the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Certification Environment will be available for trade testing on April 15, 2008 and cancelling its previous message which stated that it would not be available for trade testing on April 15, 2008 from 7:00 a.m. EDT until 11:00 p.m. EDT. (See ITT's Online Archives or 03/31/08 news, 08033145 1, for BP summary of CBP's previous CSMS message.) (CSMS 08-000047, dated 04/07/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17054&page=&srch_argv=08-000047&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby.)
The Journal of Commerce reports that critics in the trade community have stated that U.S. Customs and Border Protection grossly underestimated the cost of compliance with 102, particularly for medium-sized and small importers, and Congressional homeland security committees question whether CBP has been thorough in its charge to work with the trade. (JoC, dated 03/17/08, www.joc.com)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ACE Reports CSMS message announcing that the Authorized Data Extract (ADE), is now available to all Importer and Broker Automated Commercial Environment Portal Accounts.
At an April 2, 2008 hearing of a House Subcommittee on Homeland Security1, Deputy Commissioner Jayson Ahern testified on cargo and border security issues, including the Global Trade Exchange (GTX) pilot for which U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a Request for Quotation (RFQ) to eligible vendors in December 2007.