U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a short, summarized timeline of ACE trade functionality that spans the years 2003 through 2012 and beyond.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its "Trade Transformation" document on CBP's "BEST" trade plan for 21st century trade. This document has been updated, in part, to provide a flow diagram of the Simplified Entry process in the air cargo environment which depicts filer and carrier actions and CBP's corresponding messaging from pre-departure to arrival. The updated document also provides a general overview and expected next steps for CBP's Simplified Entry initiative.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that it will provide updates on the programming needed for existing and new ACE functionality at a Software Developer Technical Seminar that will be part of a National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) meeting to be held on March 6-8, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. CBP states that the seminar will target ocean and rail software developers and ABI participants.

During a recent trade event¹, CBP’s Acting Assistant and Deputy Commissioners discussed Acting Commissioner Aguilar's vision for the agency and the trade community in the face of current and future budget cuts. Officials state that CBP will continue to push its mission by reducing transaction costs and transforming the organization. CBP will do this by transitioning from "regulators" to "enablers" of trade. CBP will also need to harmonize its policies and regulations with its ACE efforts, address revenue-loss issues in the AD/CV collection system, and reset the penalty/mitigation process so that it is more efficient.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is expected to soon publish a proposed rule that would modernize the in-bond process so that it can go from a paper-dependent entry process to an automated-paperless process, among other changes.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted another updated version of its 2011 Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Accomplishments Fact Sheet, which now lists a total of 42 accomplishments from January to December 2011. In October - December 2011, CBP implemented ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1) training for more than 700 CBP officers at 13 ports; began both the trade and CBP pilots in support of M1; reported successful M1 manifest receipts by a sea and rail carrier, and 13 ports began to successfully accept and process M1 manifests; and completed a draft Cargo Release functional requirements document.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is allowing an additional 30 days, until March 8, 2012, to comment on eight existing carrier cargo information collections, including the Importer Security Filing. CBP is proposing to extend the expiration date of these information collections with no changes to the information collected on the forms or regulations. However, CBP has revised its estimates of the burden hours and response times based on analysis of recent data.

In U.S. Customs and Border Protection's January 2012 Trade Account Owner (TAO) Update, CBP stated that the M1 pilot (e-Manifest: Rail and Sea) was currently underway, with the first Automated Broker Interface (ABI) filer to join the pilot during the week of January 30th. However, CBP sources now state the first ABI filer will join the pilot a week later, during the week of February 6, 2012.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (COAC) will meet on February 21, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Topics to be discussed at the meeting include Air Cargo Advance Screening, the one government at the border initiative, and IPR enforcement. There will be comment opportunities before and during the meeting. The registration deadline to attend or listen to the webcast of the meeting is February 17.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an updated Directory (dated January 30, 2012) for its Revenue Division, which is part of its National Finance Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. Among other things, the Continuous Bond program is centralized in the Revenue Division. It also handles harbor maintenance fees (HMF); fines, penalties and forfeiture (FP&F); supplemental tariff bills, miscellaneous bills, and tariff debts; liquidated damages case initiation; ACE periodic payments and ACH debit/credit; among other responsibilities. The directory lists the offices within the division, the CBP staff members in each office, and their phone numbers.