On May 5, 2011, officials from Customs and Border Protection1 and other agencies testified before a Senate Finance subcommittee2 on antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) fraud and duty evasion. CBP’s testimony included the actions it plans to take to stem the circumvention, while Senators criticized CBP’s efforts to date and announced plans to reintroduce legislation to strengthen AD/CV enforcement.
Registration is open for the American Association of Exporters and Importers’ (AAEI) 90th Annual Conference, which will be held on June 5-7, 2011 in New York. Among others, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Eric Hirschhorn, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin are expected to speak at the conference.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is delaying its enforcement of the requirement that residue (such as chemicals or other bulk goods1) imported in containers considered to be instruments of international traffic (IIT) be manifested, classified, and entered (i.e., formal entry, informal entry, or Section 321 entry). Enforcement is delayed pending the resolution of information technology issues (such as the ACE M1 release).
During recent trade events1, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials discussed ACE Post Summary Correction functionality, including its expected spring 2011 deployment, its plan to only review certain PSC transmissions, and the ability of a filer other than the entry summary filer to submit PSCs. The act of filing a PSC will constitute “Customs business” as defined in 19 CFR Part 111.
CBP has posted a presentation providing an overview and status update on ACE. The presentation covers Entry Summary Accounts & Revenue (ESAR); e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail (M1); future Cargo Release; and air manifest.
CBP has issued a CSMS message stating that effective today, April 29, 2011, CBP made a security update to the ACE Secure Data Portal by discontinuing the use of SSL protocol while maintaining the use of the TLS protocol. If the trade has any problem connecting to ACE, CBP asks that they double-check the browser settings to make sure they conform to the instructions provided. (See ITT's Online Archives or 04/26/11 news, 11042611, for BP summary announcing that CBP would discontinue the use of the SSL protocol on April 28.)
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’s April 2011 ACE Trade Account Owner (TAO) announces that the agency is seeking brokers to be part of the e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail (M1) pilot, which is scheduled to begin in May. In September, CBP plans to begin rolling out M1 on a port-by-port basis and expects this rollout to be completed in January 2012.
During recent trade events1, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials discussed the ACE Document Image System (DIS), and stated that the agency plans to push imaged documents received from the trade to Participating Government Agencies (PGAs) by August 2011. This will facilitate a single automated gateway that will accept supporting documents that may be needed during the cargo importation and entry summary processes.
On April 14, 2011 at the annual U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Trade Symposium, representatives from CBP, Census, and the trade community discussed various developments related to the Administration’s National Export Initiative (NEI) and Export Control Reform Initiative.