CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

CBP will use the International Air Transport Association's messaging standard for advance cross-border data on exports out of the U.S., IATA said (here). The messaging data format, Cargo-XML, will make communication between ACE, "airlines and other air cargo stakeholders simpler and more efficient," IATA said. CBP "is working to reduce the considerable number of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) message formats currently supported to process international import, export cargo and cargo release information. IATA is assisting in this effort by permitting the US-CBP to publish to the minimal data file specifications for the IATA Cargo-XML messages."

CBP will soon publish an interim final rule amending its regulations to provide for changes coming to liquidation processes when liquidation is deployed to ACE on Oct. 1, a CBP import specialist said during a webinar Aug. 17. Beginning Oct. 1, CBP will start processing liquidations weekly every Friday, and posting notices of the liquidations electronically to a searchable database on the CBP website. The electronic bulletin notices will replace manual postings at the customs house as legal notice for importers, the import specialist said.

ACE AESDirect will undergo an outage from 10 p.m. Eastern Aug. 20 to 4 a.m. Aug. 21, the Census Bureau said in an email. Filers may submit shipments under the AES Downtime Policy, which must be filed along with any new AES transactions in ACE AESDirect after the system comes back online. Census advised AES Downtime export users to contact the port of export before filing, and in lieu of an AES Proof of Filing citation, to use the AES Downtime citation, consisting of the phrase “AESDOWN,” individual company Filer ID and date.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

The American Association of Exporters and Importers is seeking an extension of the deadline for comments on the Food and Drug Administration’s ACE filing procedures, it said in a letter to the agency dated Aug. 9 (here). Commending FDA for issuing a proposed rule June 30 that outlines the agency’s newly mandatory ACE requirements (see 1606300020), AAEI nonetheless said the trade community needs more time to respond. Importers are still managing the impact of FDA’s ACE deadline of June 15 and CBP’s July 23 deadline for quota, and haven’t had the time to develop complete responses to FDA’s notice, it said. Industry also needs more time to discuss new data elements required by FDA with service providers like customs brokers and express carriers, the letter said. AAEI requested another 60 days to respond to FDA’s proposed rule. Comments are currently due Aug. 30.

CBP is considering changes to its regulatory requirements for importing vehicles and engines in order to "harmonize" the forms required by the Environmental Protection Agency, CBP said in a notice (here). "In an effort to provide consistency in the administration of CBP’s vehicle and engine imports program so that importers of both road vehicles and engines, as well as stationary and nonroad engines (including engines incorporated into vehicles or equipment), are subject to the same filing and recordkeeping requirements, CBP is proposing to conform the entry filing requirements applicable to the EPA Declaration Form 3520-21 to those that currently exist for EPA Declaration Form 3520-1," it said. The proposal would require that importers of "stationary, nonroad or heavy-duty highway engines (including engines incorporated into vehicles or equipment) file EPA Declaration Form 3520-21 at the time of entry, unless exempt," it said. Importers with a valid EPA Certificate of Conformity that manufacture nonroad or stationary engines labeled to show compliance with emission standards would be exempt from the form 3520-21 filing requirements, CBP said.

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 8-12 in case they were missed.

CBP issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:

The National Marine Fisheries Service will use Sept. 20 as the deadline for all electronic filing of import data in ACE, and export data in the Automated Export System, for products regulated by the agency, it said (here). On that date, NMFS will end its ACE import pilot and AES export pilot, and require ACE or AES for electronic import and export filings, including the NMFS partner government agency (PGA) message set, document imaging system (DIS) submissions, and a check for the new consolidated International Fisheries Trade Permit (IFTP) for swordfish, tuna and toothfish regulated under the agency’s Antarctic Marine Living Resources, Highly Migratory Species International Trade Permit, and Tuna Tracking and Verification programs (see 1608020016). “All importers and exporters of fish products regulated by NMFS are encouraged to use ACE or AES, as applicable, for their electronic filings in advance” of Sept. 20, “when such filings will become mandatory,” NMFS said. The agency will hold two webinars, on Aug. 18 and Sept. 1, to discuss implementation of the consolidated IFTP (here).