The shift to ACE and automation marks a large cultural shift within the government and represents a move toward a 21st century supply chain, said Maria Luisa Boyce, CBP’s senior advisor for trade engagement, during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce conference on supply chains. The agency needs to keep nimble even as it deals with challenges of infrastructure and existing processes, she said. The agency's focus is continues to evolve, most recently with the customs reauthorization law, she said.

The Port of New York/Newark provided guidance to filers on how to submit documentation to CBP in light of the ongoing transition to ACE, in an informational pipeline dated May 16. When receiving “Documents Required” or “Intensive” messages after filing an entry in ACE, filers should not submit paper documents, but rather use the Document Imaging System via electronic data interchange (EDI) or email them to docs@cbp.dhs.gov, it said. Remote location filing (RLF) filers submitting ACE entry summaries certified for cargo release must submit their invoices to CBP via DIS, and not the legacy Automated Import Interface (AII), said the pipeline. Filers that receive requests for an entry summary package, or receive a CBP Form 28 or Form 29, may respond via the ACE Portal, DIS via EDI, email, or in paper form, it said.

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

The recently increased $800 de minimis limit is causing a shift in business practices for brokers and importers, and raising questions and concerns over a growing number of low value shipments, said customs brokers and importers in recent interviews. Some in the trade community still await guidance on how to proceed with low-value shipments regulated by agencies other than CBP. There is also some concern the higher limit could cause more importers to break up their shipments to avoid the entry process and associated duties, customs brokers said.

The Energy Department is reopening until June 15 the period for comments on its proposal to require filing of “certifications of admissibility” in ACE at time of entry for products subject to energy efficiency standards, in a notice (here). The agency is seeking input on “how to minimize the burden of data collection to importers of covered products or equipment subject to an applicable energy conservation standard, while at the same time providing DOE with traceability information sufficient to determine whether a covered import is one that the DOE has previously identified as noncompliant” and give CBP a description of the import so the border agency can refuse admission, said the notice.

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

CBP’s June 15 mandatory use date for filing electronic entries and entry summaries in ACE is tight, leaving little time to implement the latest FDA changes to its ACE programming and smooth out remaining issues, said customs brokers and software developers shortly after the agency announced the deadline. As detailed in a Federal Register notice (here), CBP will as of June 15 require filing in ACE of FDA entries and entry summaries under entry types 01, 03, 06, 11, 23, 51 and 52, the Automated Commercial System “will no longer be a CBP-authorized [electronic system] for purposes of processing these electronic filings,” said the agency. Though CBP said it will monitor implementation, CBP should ease in enforcement to give the trade community time to adjust, said one broker.

As of June 15, ACE will be the only authorized system for filing electronic entries and entry summaries for certain Food and Drug Administration entries and entry summaries under certain entry types, said CBP in a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication on Monday (here). On June 15, for entry types 01, 03, 06, 11, 23, 51 and 52, the Automated Commercial System “will no longer be a CBP-authorized [electronic system] for purposes of processing these electronic filings,” it said. “CBP will continue to monitor the FDA filing rates in ACE. Should there be a need to avoid a substantial adverse impact on trade, CBP will reassess the transition completion date for FDA filings,” said CBP. The Customs Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) recently joined industry calls for CBP to announce its ACE deadline for FDA entries, citing the trade industry’s need to know the date for development and training purposes.

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

CBP has implemented changes to work around communication issues between ACE truck manifest and ACE Cargo release, giving itself the ability to manually release truck entries in order to “facilitate the movement of legitimate cargo,” said the agency in a CSMS message (here). However, in order for the option to be available, the filer must include the port code on the entry, said CBP. “While we understand that it is not mandatory to file entries with a port code, doing so will assist in the manual release of entries,” it said.