During the September 22-23, 2011 Trade Support Network plenary meeting in Arlington, VA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Director of Cargo Automation Coordination stated that e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail (M1) will be deployed in parallel with existing Automated Manifest System (AMS) processing. Additionally, new M1 User Screens will be deployed to three pilot ports within the next few weeks.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has provided information on what it views as the benefits and process improvements that can be expected with the future implementation of Cargo Release in ACE. CBP states that the release process for legitimate cargo will be facilitated through process improvements, including, among other things, the creation of a single window for import data transmission, reduced redundant data requirements, paperless updates, and templates of repeated entries for trusted traders.

The President is scheduled to sign the bill that renews the Andean Trade Preference Act/Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act program on October 21, 2011. The ATPA/ATPDEA provision, which takes effect 15 days after that date (approximately November 5), will renew ATPA/ATPDEA retroactively from February 13, 2011 through July 31, 2013. This notice describes the renewal provisions in H.R. 3078 and the process that CBP is expected to follow for refund requests for entries made during the lapsed period.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS #11-000253 to announce that the 2011 ACE Customer Satisfaction Survey is being extended until midnight October 26, 2011 instead of October 19. CBP encourages all importers, brokers, carriers and other trade community users of the system to take the voluntary 5-10 minute survey, so that it can formally gauge the areas where ACE is doing well and where improvement is needed. A large response will ensure that there is greater statistical validity to the results. ACE portal users can access the survey here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently posted the presentations used at the September 22-23, 2011 Trade Support Network plenary meeting in Arlington, VA. The postings include presentations given by CBP, APHIS, FDA, FSIS, USCG and the TSN Trade Leadership Council (TLC). This ITT summary is being reissued as an editing error dropped the text on M1.

Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for October 11-14, 2011 in case they were missed last week.

The President is scheduled to sign the bill that renews the Generalized System of Preferences program on October 21, 2011. This GSP provision, which takes effect 15 days after that date (approximately November 5), will renew the GSP program retroactively from January 1, 2011 through July 31, 2013. This notice describes the GSP renewal provisions in H.R. 2832 and the process that CBP is expected to follow for refund requests for entries made during the period GSP lapsed.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its October 2011 update on its progress with the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). CBP discusses deployed ACE capabilities and provides status updates of various ACE projects, such as Document Image System (DIS), cargo release, e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1), etc. With this update, CBP states that it plans to discontinue dissemination of the ISF reports via email as of December 31, 2011. In addition, CBP states that the technology to support the collection of the PGA Message Set, which was targeted for release in October 2011, will be pushed out to November 2011 due to external factors.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing that on October 18, 2011, it will host a free webinar on CBP’s project to simplify procedures related to entry and financial processes. The one-hour webinar will provide the trade community with the goals, status, and timeline of the project and conclude with a question and answer session.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a press release stating that it and the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, Inc. are encouraging international traders to begin moving their import business process to CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment. "Our partnership with the NCBFAA will certainly help expedite the industry's transition to ACE,” said Allen Gina, assistant commissioner for CBP's Office of International Trade. "With the NCBFAA's active involvement, we expect to see ACE transactions increase dramatically."