U.S. Customs and Border Protection is advising that any carriers who have their type 2 carrier bond obligated for ACE Truck generated in-bonds, to not use the new ACE “In-bond Authorization” function at this time.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a proposed rule to amend 19 CFR to transform the in-bond process from a paper dependent entry process to an automated paperless process in ACE. It would also require additional information to be reported on the in-bond application, establish a 30-day transit time for all modes except pipelines, and require electronic permission from CBP for in-bond cargo diversion, among other changes. Comments on the proposed rule are due by April 23, 2012.

On February 21, 2012, the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) met in Washington D.C. to hear updates on ACE and other projects from government officials as well as reports from its various committees. With respect to ACE, government officials announced that (1) CBP will have six major ACE drops over next 6-8 months, (2) CBP is still looking at how to fix the ACE summary “edits” problem, (3) ACE is critically short on funding for further development, (4) ACE will soon be reviewed by DHS from a financial investment perspective, and (5) the main software developer’s contract has run its term. Attendees also gave an update on ACE Simplified Entry and Summary, and ACE for exports.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a proposed rule to make various changes to the in-bond regulations so that they are more logical and better track the in-bond process. The proposed rule would transform the in-bond process from a paper dependent entry process to an automated paperless process in ACE. It would also require additional information to be reported on the in-bond application, establish a 30-day transit time for all modes except pipelines, and require electronic permission from CBP for in-bond cargo diversion, among other changes. Comments on the proposed rule are due by April 23, 2012.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued two messages alerting the trade that the six-month count down to turning off the Automated Manifest System and replacing it with ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1) is targeted to start in March 2012 when CBP announces that M1 will be the only CBP-approved electronic data interchange (EDI) through which rail and sea manifests will be transmitted. CBP warns that there will be mandatory changes to functionality that impact ABI software developers and their users, and it is time for those not filing via ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea to test and become certified now. CBP notes that the deployment of M1 is going well, and that all direct arrival ports will be deployed with trained CBP users by the end of March 2012. CSMS #12-000051 (dated 02/17/12) available here. CSMS #12-000050 and attachment (dated 02/17/12) available here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted another updated version of its February 2012 "Trade Transformation" document. The revised document no longer states that testing of the Simplified Entry process in the air cargo environment will begin mid-February followed by production in late February to early March. The updated document also no longer states that the first Simplified Entry is expected to be filed (by the trade) in March 2012. The revised version has also added back in a listing of the locations for the two established and seven planned industry Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing that it will present upcoming programming changes for existing and new functionality scheduled to be delivered as part of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) at the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) meeting on March 6-8, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. The seminar will target ocean and rail software developers and ABI participants. Presentations over the three days will focus on: (i) Message formats for ACE M1 Ocean/Rail Manifest and the trade pilot; (ii) New IT initiatives including Export Manifest, Cargo Release, Simplified Entry, Document Image System (DIS), PGA Message Set, and ABI changes for M1; (iii) ACE entry summary and related documentation overviews such as ACS to ACE changes, Entry Summary Create/Update and Status Notification, Post Summary Corrections, etc. Registration is available at http://www.ncbfaa.org/.

Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for February 13 - February 17, 2012 in case they were missed last week.

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

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a 183 page list of all active Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) User Requirements of the Trade Support Network that are pending CBP review. Most of these active user requirements cover ACE Accounts, Entry, and Multi-Modal Manifest (MMM), however there are also Export and Revenue user requirements, among others. CBP has also posted a 300+ page list of all active (pending CBP review) and completed ACE user requirements of the TSN, called the User Requirement Tracking Matrix (URTM) here. The 183 page list no longer appears to be on CBP's website, but is available by emailing documents@brokerpower.com