CBP plans to implement its second piece of Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) under its new "agile" development program on Jan. 4, the agency said in an update. The implementation will allow for an expansion of the Simplified Entry pilot.

CBP's cargo release pilot program now has 20 filer participants and about 194,000 Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) cargo release entries have been filed since the pilot began in May last year (see 12060516), said CBP in a Cargo Release Fact sheet (here). CBP also provided a separate broad overview on its work on ACE (here).

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An ongoing effort by CBP toward centralization of single transaction bond (STB) processing would eventually mean CBP ports would no longer be responsible for the manual review and approval of STBs, said Bruce Ingalls, director of the Revenue Divisions in the CBP Office of Administration. Ingalls and others discussed the planned changes during a National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America Webinar on Dec. 12. The update would allow the agency to better protect revenue through improved enforcement of STB requirements before cargo release, he said. The new system will allow STBs to be electronically transmitted to CBP as part of the entry process through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), the agency previously said in June while outlining the idea at the Port of Boston (see 13070120).

CBP will open its test of the Participating Government Agency (PGA) Message Set in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) on Jan. 13, the agency said in a notice. The two-year pilot marks a step toward the "single window" concept, meant to allow for importers to submit all required information to all necessary agencies at once. The pilot will only allow for the submission of certain Environmental Protection Agency (PGA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) import data to CBP.

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CBP posted documents related to phase two of its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Cargo Release test. Scheduled to begin on Jan. 4 as part of ACE Deployment B, phase two will expand the Cargo Release test to the ocean and rail environments. CBP posted updates to two ACE Automated Broker Interface (ABI) CATAIR chapters related to the test. The agency in November expanded eligibility for the pilot, which was formerly known as Simplified Entry, by no longer requiring customs brokers and importer self-filers have Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) status (see 13110115).

CBP made some minor amendments to the Free Trade Agreements Certification of Origin and the Preference Criterion, it said in a Dec. 2 message to Automated Broker Interface and ACE Portal Accounts. They include:

CBP said there has been an increase in the number of ACE Reports problems that have been reported to CBP. It said when the problems are reported, there's inadequate information to the Helpdesk for the ACE Development Team to investigate, leading to delays in processing and resolution of the problems. As a result it said it would need additional information, including user contact details, primary account ID#, ACE Login ID, name/number of report and type, date and time report was last run successfully, date and time report was last run unsuccessfully, user ID that ran the report, specific parameters such as search criteria used in report search, detailed description issue, error message/code received, screenshot of error attached to ticket, browser type and version, Java version and operating system used. To open a CBP Technology Service Desk trouble ticket, it said users should call 1-866-530-4172 or send an email to ace.support@cbp.dhs.gov.

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