U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources state that the agency is still planning to discontinue the use of Post-Entry Amendments (PEAs) for entry summaries filed in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), effective September 22, 2011. For entry summaries filed after that date, only Post Summary Corrections (PSCs) will be allowed in ACE.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS#11-000214 stating that previous communications have identified access to the Shared Reports folder as one of the many general ACE Portal capabilities included in the e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1) release. However, since the deployment of M1 functionality, CBP has discovered an issue related to the Shared Reports folder. Users will not have access to the folder until the issue is resolved. A CSMS will be issued when access to the folder becomes available.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a document on in-bond authorization for rail and sea carriers in ACE since the deployment of ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1). The document provides instructions on how to create and maintain a carrier in-bond authorization, grant additional port access to an existing authorized partner, edit date parameters for authorized partners, remove ports from an authorized partner, and remove authorized partners from an account in ACE.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources state that September 18th will be the last "print date" for paper courtesy notices of liquidation for importers of record whose entry summaries are filed in ABI. These entry summaries will have a September 30 liquidation date. For all entry summaries scheduled for liquidation after September 30, importers using agents to file in ABI must obtain their liquidation information from their ACE Portal Accounts or Customs broker.

On September 7, 2011, the Senate Appropriations Committee amended, approved, and reported the fiscal year 2012 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 2017), which would provide $410 million more for CBP than was enacted in FY 2011, including funds for cargo scanning pilots. In its report, the Committee urges CBP to encourage or require brokers to develop “know your customer” programs, consider a U.S. agent requirement for foreign importers, etc.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an updated version of its fact sheet on ACE Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) at-a-glance, which includes minor changes. The fact sheet provides information on new and future ACE ESAR portal features, such as reduction of paper and streamlining processes for CBP and the trade community etc. Fact sheet handout is available here.

Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for August 29 -- September 2, 2011 in case they were missed last week.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS Message (#11-000209) providing a Spanish version of the August 2011 Trade Account Owner (TAO) Update for truck carriers to share with all users of their ACE account.

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 its August 2011 ACE Trade Account Owner Update, which provides new information on upcoming ACE Courtesy Notice of Liquidation reports, a recent Decal/Transponder Online Procurement System (DTOPS) release, and how to handle an issue when running entry summary line detail reports, among other topics.