U.S. Customs and Border Protection states it is aware that ABI filers began having issues with release dates beginning with a code deployment on the evening of January 17, 2012, when the M1 team switched the manifest system of record from AMS to ACE. This change in the system of record resulted in some issues with cargo release dates, which are in the process of being fixed. CBP states its Field Offices will be notified not to issue liquidated damages created by these systems issues.

Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for January 17-20, 2012 in case they were missed last week.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an amendment to its October 2011 memorandum on the renewal of the Andean Trade Preference Act and the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, and the procedures for duty refunds for merchandise entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during the period in which the ATPA and ATPDEA programs lapsed (February 13, 2011 through November 4, 2011). The amendment involves the SPI "J*" and HTS 9821.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted the change record for the CATAIR chapter on the ACE PGA Message Set, which lists the following changes:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a January 2012 update on its progress with various Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) capabilities and other projects, such as Document Image System (DIS), PGA Message Set, e-Manifest: rail and Sea (M1), ACE Truck, Automated Export Processing etc. With this update, CBP states that in addition to allowing the trade to electronically transmit document images and associated data to CBP, the DIS will support processing single transaction bonds submitted by the trade. CBP also notes that as of January 2012, it deployed M1 at 17 ports (from 13 ports in December 2011).

According to officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CBP expects the first filing of a live Simplified Entry by pilot trade participants to occur in March 2012. Testing with the trade is now expected to begin in late January or early February 2012, due to delays caused by M1’s pushed-back deployment schedule.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a message stating that due to problems with the URL for accessing the ACE Trade Web Based Training site on cbp.gov, CBP has created a new URL that will allow the trade to access the WBT: http://nemo.cbp.gov/ace_online.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a message to ACE Portal Accounts stating that following a code change early Wednesday morning, January 18, QP in-bond shipments that were accepted in ABI failed to appear in ACE Truck carrier portal accounts and also failed to link to EDI truck manifest shipments. CBP corrected the problem at 7:29 p.m. EST and newly-filed QP shipments are available for linking to ACE Truck manifests either by ABI or in carrier portal accounts.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is requesting comments by February 17, 2012 on a proposed Document/Payment Transmittal form for ACE entry summaries, which is part of its information collection request for CBP Form 7501. CBP had previously announced its intent to extend the expiration date of its CBP Form 7501 information collection with a change to the burden hours. CBP is now proposing to add this new Document/Payment Transmittal form and is reopening the comment period for an additional 30 days.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted presentation slides on its "Trade Transformation" initiatives for 21st century trade. Within the slides, CBP states that it seeks to improve cargo security while increasing trade competitiveness by fully aggregating risk management. According to CBP, it will accomplish this by leveraging end-to-end visibility of accounts that captures a holistic view of the global supply chain through the use of its "BEST" goals.