U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS message #12-000026 announcing that the ACE M1 system (e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail) experienced a backlog of messages beginning at 11:15 EST on January 27, 2012. This backlog caused trade notifications and message processing to slow down dramatically. The underlying reason for the backlog was alleviated around 15:30 EST the same day. The estimated time to work through the backlog was up to two hours. Normal processing times was expected to be restored by 17:30 EST.

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 CSMS #12-000023 to provide information on the recently released Microsoft Internet Explorer version 8 security patch KB2585542, which is incompatible with the current Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) application and has resulted in slow Portal performance. CBP states it is investigating the conflict and hopes to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. CBP has provided an interim solution for trade consideration and determination, which involves the removal of the security patch. If this temporary solution is selected, CBP states users should work with their local IT resources to perform the removal. If users determine to effectuate the removal, CBP has provided the following steps:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted two fact sheets on the benefits of its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) for service providers and truck carriers, which include the following:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice containing the email address the trade can use for submitting questions on ACE Simplified Entry and Summary. General questions can be sent to: CBPSimplifiedProcesses@dhs.gov.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection states it is aware that ABI filers began having issues with release dates beginning with a code deployment on the evening of January 17, 2012, when the M1 team switched the manifest system of record from AMS to ACE. This change in the system of record resulted in some issues with cargo release dates, which are in the process of being fixed. CBP states its Field Offices will be notified not to issue liquidated damages created by these systems issues.

Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for January 17-20, 2012 in case they were missed last week.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an amendment to its October 2011 memorandum on the renewal of the Andean Trade Preference Act and the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, and the procedures for duty refunds for merchandise entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during the period in which the ATPA and ATPDEA programs lapsed (February 13, 2011 through November 4, 2011). The amendment involves the SPI "J*" and HTS 9821.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the change record for the CATAIR chapter on the ACE PGA Message Set, which lists the following changes:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a January 2012 update on its progress with various Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) capabilities and other projects, such as Document Image System (DIS), PGA Message Set, e-Manifest: rail and Sea (M1), ACE Truck, Automated Export Processing etc. With this update, CBP states that in addition to allowing the trade to electronically transmit document images and associated data to CBP, the DIS will support processing single transaction bonds submitted by the trade. CBP also notes that as of January 2012, it deployed M1 at 17 ports (from 13 ports in December 2011).