CBP has issued a CSMS message stating that Hurricane Gustav, which came ashore on Monday, September 1, 2008, has affected most of southern Louisiana and coastal areas of Mississippi. Due to the evacuation of CBP personnel in these areas and subsequent damage as a result of the storm, the ports of Gulfport, Mississippi and Gramercy, Lake Charles, Morgan City, and New Orleans, Louisiana were closed on Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Unified Business Resumption Messaging Web site messages providing a port status update in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. The most recent message (dated September 2, 2008 at 9:00 a,m. EST) provides details on the situation for the affected ports/terminals. CBP also posted an alert stating that Gustav may affect CBP operations and employees along the Gulf of Mexico. (UBRM update, dated 09/02/08, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/trade_outreach/bus_resumption/maritime/marine_gustav_3_4.xml; CBP alert, dated 08/29/08, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/highlights/hurricane_gustav.xml.)

CBP has posted an updated version of its "ACE on the Road" event schedule, which includes the following events:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice and press releases announcing that it will hold its 9th annual Trade Symposium on October 29-31, 2008 at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a general notice announcing its plans to conduct a National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) voluntary test concerning new Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) capabilities, including functionality specific to entry summary filing and processing of formal consumption entries and informal entries.

The International Longshore & Warehouse Union caucus delegates voted unanimously on August 21, 2008 to send the proposed contract to the membership for their review and vote. (ILWU notice available at http://contract2008.org/.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message stating that at approximately 1:30 p.m. EDT on August 25, 2008, ACE users experienced slow system response when logging into and navigating in ACE. The issue impacted both CBP and Trade users. CBP users could access trip processing and Trade users could submit manifest via the ACE portal but experienced slow system response. The issue is now resolved and users can now access ACE without experiencing slow system response. (CSMS message announcing the fix, 08-000176, dated 08/25/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17195&page=&srch_argv=08-000176&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby; CSMS message announcing the problem, 08-000174. dated 08/25/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17193&page=&srch_argv=&srchtype=&btype=&sortby=&sby)

CBP has issued a CSMS message announcing that as of 8:27 p.m. EDT on August 22, 2008, the problem with ACE users being unable to access ACE and users not being able to submit e-Manifests via ACE was corrected. CBP notes that during that time e-Manifests could be submitted via EDI. (CSMS message on service being restored, 08-000172, dated 08/22/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17191&page=&srch_argv=08-000172&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby; CSMS message announcing the problem and ACE service delays, 08-000168 and 08-000165, dated 08/22/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17187&page=&srch_argv=08-000168&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby and http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17184&page=&srch_argv=08-000165&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its "ACE on the Road" event schedule, which includes the following event:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of August 18, 2008. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, tobacco, certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly TRQ/TPL commodity report available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/trade_programs/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)