During the May 9, 2008 meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC), CBP officials announced that CBP has agreed to carry over into the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) 24 edits which the Trade Support Network had asked CBP to keep.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued Truck Manifest, ABI, and ACE Portal Accounts CSMS messages announcing that ACE was experiencing a problem with (1) output response messages and (2) ACE not receiving Portal manifests. In the messages, CBP noted that EDI manifests were being received and processed, however, no 355 messages were being sent out. According to the ACE Help Desk, as of May 12, 2008, these problems had been resolved.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has newly posted the ACE ABI CATAIR Change Record section, and has updated four other chapters.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued, as attachments to an ABI CSMS message, agendas for both the Providence, RI and Long Beach, CA ACE ABI CATAIR Technical Seminars for trade software developers only.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with trade community input, has created a new Automated Commercial Environment Secure Data Portal account revenue report.

According to a U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel Textile Development Memo, the House and Senate conferees that are working on a compromise Food and Energy Security Act of 2007 (aka the Farm Bill), are expected to include provisions that would extend the U.S.-Caribbean Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) for two years and extend for ten years and expand the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) Act. (USA-ITA TDM, dated 05/01/08, www.usaita.com.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI and Truck Manifest CSMS message announcing that the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Certification Environment will be availablefrom 8:00 a.m. EDT on May 27, 2008 through 8:00 a.m. EDT on June 3, 2008. The previously announced outage for this period has been cancelled; CBP will notify the trade when it is rescheduled. (See ITT's Online Archives or 05/01/08 news, 08050135 1, for BP summary announcing that the ACE Certification Environment would be unavailable during this time period.)

In December 2007, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that the phased enforcement of mandatory Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest: Truck for advance cargo information purposes at all land border ports in Alaska beginning February 11, 2008.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its report to Congress on the Automated Commercial Environment for the first quarter of fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007). The report provides an update on ACE accomplishments, challenges, fiscal status, and upcoming program milestones.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI CSMS message announcing that it will be conducting two ACE ABI CATAIR Technical Seminars for trade software developers only.