CBP hopes to begin inviting trade members to participate in the first pilot of the Participating Government Agency (PGA) this fall with the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), said Susan Dyszel, International Trade Data System (ITDS) Team Lead at CBP. Dyszel was speaking at the Import Compliance and Enforcement conference in Washington June 20.

CBP posted a June update on its progress with various ACE capabilities and other projects, such as the Document Image System, PGA Message Set, e-Manifest: rail and Sea (M1), ACE Truck, Automated Export Processing etc.

CBP is encouraging all carriers, including all Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers, to establish a free Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Secure Data Portal account. An ACE portal account will provide ocean and rail carriers with enhanced functionality via ACE.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a spreadsheet showing active AD/CVD cases and the associated case numbers, ISO country codes, tariff numbers, and short descriptions of each case as of May 15 . This information alone should not be relied upon in determining whether an AD/CVD case is currently active, or whether merchandise falls under the scope of AD/CVD order, said CBP. For current AD/CVD information, consult ACE, Department of Commerce Federal Register Notices, and ADDCVD Search on CBP.gov, said CBP.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a CSMS message the ACE certification environment will be unavailable June 13 from 6 a.m.until 11 a.m. ABI software developer requested that CBP deploy fixes to the ACE certification environment prior to deployment to ACE Production, scheduled for June 23.

Despite a threatened Presidential veto, the House of Representatives approved a $46 billion budget bill (HR-5855) June 7 for the Homeland Security Department on a vote of 234-182. The budget bill includes increases in funding for border and immigration enforcement, but includes a slight cut for the Transportation Security Administration. The bill now goes to the Senate, where Democratic leaders have indicated opposition to it.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will hold two Webinars for carriers and software developers who haven't started the transition from AMS to eManifest: Rail and Sea (M1). CBP will shut down AMS on Sept. 29, leaving M1 as the only electronic filing environment.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a final rule to permit licensed customs brokers to store records relating to their customs transactions at any location within the U.S. under certain conditions, and to remove the requirement that certain brokers retain entry records in their original format for the 120-day period after release of imported merchandise. The rule ran in the Federal Register June 8.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection official Daniel Baldwin sought to allay persistent concerns from the trade community on the coming transition to eManifest: Rail and Sea (M1), saying the immediate CBP focus will be implementation rather enforcement. Baldwin, CBP's Executive Director of Cargo and Conveyance Security, spoke at the American Association for Exporters and Importers convention June 5. Several industry executives voiced concerns, especially about the treatment of residue within M1.