U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS Message #12-000006 advising the trade that CBP is still investigating the ACE Portal slow response issue. CBP has contacted some trade users and had them back out Microsoft Internet Explorer version 8 security patch KB2585542. This action returned these users to normal processing. CBP will provide an additional update upon completion of its investigation.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS Message #12-000004 advising that there may be an additional ACE outage beginning January 15, 2012 at 11:00PM EST and ending on January 16, 2012 at 5:00AM EST to deploy certain M1 (e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail) code. This outage is in addition to the regular scheduled ACE maintenance window.
On January 3, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated its ACE ABI Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) for its Chapter on Entry Summary Create/Update in order to correct the Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) de minimis value in Entry Summary Filing - Usage Note (o). CATAIR Change Record for 2012 is available here. Entry Summary Create/Update CATAIR Chapter is available here. Download all sections of the CATAIR here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS Message #12-000003, announcing that it has received reports from trade users of slow response times when using the ACE Portal. CBP is investigating these reports. CBP will issue another CSMS once this issue is cleared.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message detailing the arrival "process steps and conditions" of ACE M1 (e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail) for ocean carriers using both ACE M1 and the legacy Automated Manifest System (AMS). This new functionality deployed on December 14, 2011.
Trade and other sources state that U.S. Customs and Border Protection could maintain its momentum in the development of the Automated Commercial Environment, even without a Presidential appointee as Commissioner.
David Genovese, the Director of Trade Modernization and ACE Coordination in the ACE Business Office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, passed away at age 44 on December 27, 2011. He is survived by his wife and two children, ages 16 and 13. The David Genovese Memorial Fund, Wells Fargo Bank c/o Branch Manager, 131 Garrisonville Road, Stafford, VA, 22554 has been created to benefit his children, in lieu of flowers. Internment was private. Press reports indicate Genovese died of a massive heart attack. Daily Record obituary notice available here.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for January 3-6, 2012 in case they were missed last week.
In late December 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that 13 CBP ports were starting to process rail and sea manifests in the "CBP port phase" of the ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1) pilots, which began in November 2011.
The Los Angeles Field Operations branch of U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a Public Bulletin to announce that the LA/Long Beach Seaport is posting the “official” Bulletin Notices of Liquidation -- CBP Forms 4333 -- on a compact disk as of January 6, 2012 for three port codes. According to CBP sources, this change facilitates requests for copies, as it will be less burdensome than copying from the paper version.