CBP may be moving toward pushing back the Nov. 1 mandatory use date of the Automated Commercial Environment for electronic entry summary and cargo release filing, said Jon Kent, a lobbyist for the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association. Kent spoke during an NCBFAA webinar on July 28. The NCBFAA and others groups told CBP in recent months that the planned ACE timeline may not allow for sufficient testing by industry and the government and that more time is needed (see 1507170020).

CBP made some changes in its draft Automated Commercial Environment business process document (here). CBP recently posted a first draft last month and requested industry comments (see 1505180010). The processes document is expected to function as the "cornerstone" for both the trade and port personnel (see 1504270018).

CBP will again allow for duty-free processing Generalized System of Preferences claims through the Automated Commercial Environment and Automated Commercial System beginning at 7 a.m. on July 29, the agency said. (here). The program was recently renewed after a multi-year lapse and CBP released guidance on procedures for past and future GSP claims (see 1507210023).

CBP posted its draft agenda and some other agency documents (here) for the upcoming Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) meeting on July 29. The COAC will likely make some recommendations related to the planned transition date for the Automated Commercial Environment (see 1507150063), though no such recommendations were posted as of press time.

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

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

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 13-17 in case they were missed.

CBP outlined the agency's plans for refunding duties on entries eligible for Generalized System of Preferences treatment collected during the program's lapse. The agency answered some Frequently Asked Questions (here) and provided detailed information on the refund process (here). While some information on the GSP refund processing was previously released (see 1507200020), the agency hadn't released official guidance on the GSP renewal. The GSP reauthorization allows for retroactive benefits to be applied to eligible goods entered after July 31, 2013 through July 28.

CBP New York/Newark released statistics in a pipeline notice showing the "cycle time measurement" of Centralized Examination Stations from April through June. The cycle times refer to the time from ocean container arrival, as transmitted via the Automated Commercial Environment, through final examination completion release date.

Cindy Allen will leave DHL Global Forwarding per mutual agreement “due to a structuring exercise,” said a company spokeswoman. Allen, formerly vice president and head of U.S. customs brokerage for DHL, will remain with the company until Oct. 10 as a consultant. Allen said she will retain her membership on the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC). Allen joined DHL in 2012 after leading the CBP Automated Commercial Environment Business Office (see 12081721). Jim Miller, currently DHL customs operations manager for the northern border, will take over as senior director of U.S. customs brokerage while retaining his current role, said the spokeswoman. “A new role of Head of Customs Brokerage Operations U.S. will be announced in due course,” she said.