U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted another updated version of its February 2012 "Trade Transformation" document. The revised document no longer states that testing of the Simplified Entry process in the air cargo environment will begin mid-February followed by production in late February to early March. The updated document also no longer states that the first Simplified Entry is expected to be filed (by the trade) in March 2012. The revised version has also added back in a listing of the locations for the two established and seven planned industry Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing that it will present upcoming programming changes for existing and new functionality scheduled to be delivered as part of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) at the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) meeting on March 6-8, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. The seminar will target ocean and rail software developers and ABI participants. Presentations over the three days will focus on: (i) Message formats for ACE M1 Ocean/Rail Manifest and the trade pilot; (ii) New IT initiatives including Export Manifest, Cargo Release, Simplified Entry, Document Image System (DIS), PGA Message Set, and ABI changes for M1; (iii) ACE entry summary and related documentation overviews such as ACS to ACE changes, Entry Summary Create/Update and Status Notification, Post Summary Corrections, etc. Registration is available at http://www.ncbfaa.org/.

Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for February 13 - February 17, 2012 in case they were missed last week.

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 issued a 183 page list of all active Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) User Requirements of the Trade Support Network that are pending CBP review. Most of these active user requirements cover ACE Accounts, Entry, and Multi-Modal Manifest (MMM), however there are also Export and Revenue user requirements, among others. CBP has also posted a 300+ page list of all active (pending CBP review) and completed ACE user requirements of the TSN, called the User Requirement Tracking Matrix (URTM) here. The 183 page list no longer appears to be on CBP's website, but is available by emailing documents@brokerpower.com

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a user guide on Receiving and Responding to CBP Forms 28 (Request for Information), 29 (Notice of Action), and 4647 (Notice to Mark/Notice to Re-Deliver) in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Secure Data Portal. According to CBP, ACE accounts electing to receive copies of these forms through the ACE Portal are not required to respond through the ACE Portal. Responses may be submitted to CBP through the ACE Portal or submitted to CBP at the port of entry where the entry summary is filed. ACE User guide available here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted five user guides dated February 2012 on merging Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) accounts, cross account access, managing user access, the business activity log, and initial account access.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted February 2012 user guides for the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) on antidumping and countervailing duty cases and messages, blanket declaration records (e.g. importer certifying statement, NAFTA certificate of origin), and entry banks for BRASS, FAST, and Rail Line Release.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a February 2012 user guide on Post Summary Corrections (PSC) of entry summaries in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). Importer-authorized ACE entry summary filers can submit a PSC for an existing ACE entry summary type 01 and 03 entry summary, which replaces the existing summary with a new version that will be processed through existing validations, including Census warnings. If a PSC is filed by someone other than the original filer, the original filer will not get a courtesy notice of liquidation via ABI (unless the filing occurs under NILS). Only the original entry filer or most recent PSC filer will be able to view the specific entry summary that was corrected. However, output records are split into "semi-private" (limited information, not the current owner) and "private/owner" information. Note that the filing of PSCs is considered 'customs business.' Post-Summary Corrections User Guide is available here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message informing all ACE report users that all ACE reports are now up to date. On February 15, 2012, CBP had announced in CSMS #12-000047 that all Account Management, Authorized Data Extract, Entry Summary, Multi-Modal Manifest, Reference and Transactions reports were not updated. The CSMS further stated that reports should be up to date by February 16 and that a subsequent message would be issued once the data load was completed.