U.S. Customs and Border Protection has revised and expanded its 2005 “Guidance for Certificates of Reimbursement” for antidumping (AD) duties in order to provide updated information on protests, the option for paperless filing using ACE, and provide additional information regarding blanket certificates, related parties, deemed liquidations, and certificates for companion countervailing (CV) duties.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is requesting comments by May 11, 2012 on an existing information collection concerning the Application to use the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection with no change to the burden hours or to the information collected.

On March 15, 2012, the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement entered into force. CBP states that the ACS and ACE system changes for filing KFTA entry summary claims are expected to be ready on March 21, 2012, and that CBP will notify the trade via CSMS message when KFTA entry summary claims can be filed using these automated systems.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not yet completed its programming to allow entry summary claims for Korea Free Trade Agreement (KFTA or KORUS) duty benefits to be filed using the ACS Automated Broker Interface (ABI). In the meantime, CBP sources and the agency's KFTA instructions list several alternatives to use for entry, and well as a post importation claim option (and form). KFTA takes effect for qualifying goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after March 15, 2012.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a document on the trade benefits from the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). ACE is the commercial trade processing system being developed to become the "single window" through which international traders will electronically provide all information needed by federal agencies for the import of cargo. CBP states that the benefits of ACE continue to grow as new capabilities are developed and deployed. The document lists the trade benefits based on functionality currently available in ACE and are organized by trade sector in addition to, in some cases, ACE Portal role.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its instructions for the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), which takes effect for qualifying goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after March 15, 2012. The notice gives an overview of the KFTA rules of origin, as well as instructions for handling "WCO tariff number" discrepancies. CBP also provides information on its process for verifying importer claims, the SPI "KR", post-importation claims and protests, etc.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that its maintenance activities for ACE that were started on Saturday March 10, 2012 2300 EST are now complete and ACE is now available. On March 9, CBP advised the trade that the regular ACE Maintenance Window might be extended Sunday, March 11 and that the extended window was scheduled from 5:00 am EDT - 6:45 pm EDT. (CSMS #12-000077, dated 03/11/12)

Officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently stated that importers who have not received a Generalized System of Preferences SPI “A” refund by March 31, 2012 should assume that the claim “fell through the cracks” and file a written refund request by the April 18, 2012 deadline to ensure those refunds are received.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.