U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a document on the trade benefits from the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). ACE is the commercial trade processing system being developed to become the "single window" through which international traders will electronically provide all information needed by federal agencies for the import of cargo. CBP states that the benefits of ACE continue to grow as new capabilities are developed and deployed. The document lists the trade benefits based on functionality currently available in ACE and are organized by trade sector in addition to, in some cases, ACE Portal role.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its instructions for the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), which takes effect for qualifying goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after March 15, 2012. The notice gives an overview of the KFTA rules of origin, as well as instructions for handling "WCO tariff number" discrepancies. CBP also provides information on its process for verifying importer claims, the SPI "KR", post-importation claims and protests, etc.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that its maintenance activities for ACE that were started on Saturday March 10, 2012 2300 EST are now complete and ACE is now available. On March 9, CBP advised the trade that the regular ACE Maintenance Window might be extended Sunday, March 11 and that the extended window was scheduled from 5:00 am EDT - 6:45 pm EDT. (CSMS #12-000077, dated 03/11/12)

Officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently stated that importers who have not received a Generalized System of Preferences SPI “A” refund by March 31, 2012 should assume that the claim “fell through the cracks” and file a written refund request by the April 18, 2012 deadline to ensure those refunds are received.

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

The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, Inc., has posted the following U.S. Customs and Border Protection's presentation documents for the March 6-8, 2012 Trade Software Developer Technical Seminar. During the seminar, CBP officials will discuss programming changes for existing and new functionality scheduled to be delivered as part of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that the ACE Rail Manifest Implementation Guidelines have been updated to include the changes needed for Instruments of International Traffic (IIT) residue reporting.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Resource Contact Guide, which lists ACE topics and the appropriate e-mail address or phone number to contact for questions on those topics, as well as hours of operation.

On March 2, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection advised the trade that the regular ACE Maintenance Window (Saturday 2300 EST - Sunday 0500 EST) might be extended Sunday, March 4, 2012 and, if needed, the extended window was scheduled from 5am EST - 6:30pm EST. CBP states that the extended ACE maintenance is now complete and ACE is up and running. (CSMS #12-000066, dated 03/04/12)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) user guide on In-Bond Authorization for rail and sea carriers. With the deployment of ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1), rail and sea carriers will have the ability to create a list of authorized Type 2 In-Bond users in their ACE Secure Data Portal Accounts. This functionality will allow the carrier to control who can obligate their Type 2 custodial bonds (CBP Form 301). Although carriers are not required to utilize this functionality, carriers who choose to control access to their bonds have the ability to indicate the specific ports and lengths of time a carrier or broker is authorized to obligate their bond.