The next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) will be on May 22, 2012 at 1 p.m. (EST) in Savannah, Ga. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is seeking comment on the planned agenda items, according to a notice in the Federal Register May 4, 2012. Online registration for webcast and in-person attendance at the COAC meeting is open through May 18, 2012.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released an April update for ACE Trade Account Owners. The update included reminders on the ongoing Document Imaging System (DIS) pilot and the Sept. 29, 2012, effective date for required use of ACE to file advance information for ocean and rail cargo to CBP.

On May 29, the optional import component of the web-based Public Health Information System (PHIS) will be partially operational, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a letter to importers dated April 18, 2012. On that date, in all U.S. official import inspection establishments handling imports of meat, poultry and egg products, PHIS will: (i) provide for a government-to-government electronic transmission of inspection certificate data as an alternative to the paper certification, beginning with Australia and New Zealand; and (ii) begin transfer of 10 data elements from U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) to FSIS.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided Colombia Free Trade Act system requirements in a CSMS message April 30, 2012.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection sent a reminder that on September 29, 2012, ACS/AMS EDI Ocean Manifest functionality will be transitioned to ACE as part of the ACE eManifest: Rail and Sea Deployment. When this transition takes place, filers will no longer be able transmit or receive data via ACS/AMS, said CBP. Programming changes to comply with the modified record formats must be made in order to continue filing manifests electronically pursuant to the Trade Act of 2002, it said.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - The budget environment will force the move to Automated Commercial Environment whether industry feels completely ready or not, said CBP’s Executive Director of the ACE Business Office Cindy Allen, speaking at the National Association of Customs Brokers and Forwarders of America conference April 25. As previously announced, the funding may be used up by next year, forcing the agency to make difficult choices on continuing to use certain pre-departure information systems, she said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the April 23, 2012 Change Record for the ACE ABI CATAIR (Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements). The Change Record indicates that the ABI Batch and Block Control section of this document has been revised (Revision 4). The revision documents the differences between the ACE ABI e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (eMAN) and the ACE ABI Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) Control A-, Y-, and Z-Records. ABI Batch and Control Block section available here. Change Record available here. Entire ACE ABI CATAIR available here.

Customs and Border Protection issued a reminder that the six-month transition has begun for ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea. As a result, effective September 29, 2012, ACE will be the only approved EDI for transmitting required advance rail and sea cargo information and ABI in-bond transactions to CBP, it said.

Customs and Border Protection issued a notice April 24 saying shared reports are now available for use by the trade community. The notice said all ACE trade report users now have the ability to share customized reports with any user of their ACE Portal account who has access to ACE reports. This will improve efficiency for the account by eliminating the need for multiple users to create similar reports, it said.

Customs and Border Protection's Office of Information and Technology said it assembled a list of companies/persons offering data processing services to the trade community for the Automated Broker Interface (ABI). It said inclusion on the list doesn't constitute any form of an endorsement by CBP about the nature, extent or quality of the services that may be provided.