U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which began processing GSP duty refunds in early December for entries made during the period of January 1, 2011 through November 4, 2011, now states that refunds have been issued for all automatic refund requests (i.e., for entries that were filed duty-paid via ABI with the SPI "A"), except for ones that "failed" this refund process, which are being sent to the ports where entry was made to be manually processed. The target date for CBP completing the refund process for the SPI "A" failed entries is the end of February 2012.
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 CSMS Message #12-000007 announcing that it has conclusively determined that recently released Microsoft Internet Explorer version 8 security patch KB2585542 is not compatible with the current ACE application, and is affecting response times in the ACE Portal. If users have recently implemented the new Microsoft patch and are experiencing slow response times, CBP recommends that they remove the patch to use their ACE Portal accounts. CBP continues to investigate this issue and will provide additional information when available.
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. This will be accomplished by leveraging end-to-end visibility of accounts that captures a holistic view of the global supply chain. CBP also outlines how it will accomplish this through its BEST goals: (1) Better Targeting; (2) Expedite Trade; (4) Segment Risk; (5) and Transaction Savings and through its various trade initiatives. These initiatives include Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS), Importer Security Filing (ISF), Simplified Entry/summary, ACE, Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEE), and the role of the broker. CBP also maps out the supply chain for each mode of transportation and ACE.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for January 9-13, 2012 in case they were missed last week.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS Message #12-000006 advising the trade that CBP is still investigating the ACE Portal slow response issue. CBP has contacted some trade users and had them back out Microsoft Internet Explorer version 8 security patch KB2585542. This action returned these users to normal processing. CBP will provide an additional update upon completion of its investigation.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS Message #12-000004 advising that there may be an additional ACE outage beginning January 15, 2012 at 11:00PM EST and ending on January 16, 2012 at 5:00AM EST to deploy certain M1 (e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail) code. This outage is in addition to the regular scheduled ACE maintenance window.
On January 3, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated its ACE ABI Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) for its Chapter on Entry Summary Create/Update in order to correct the Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) de minimis value in Entry Summary Filing - Usage Note (o). CATAIR Change Record for 2012 is available here. Entry Summary Create/Update CATAIR Chapter is available here. Download all sections of the CATAIR here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS Message #12-000003, announcing that it has received reports from trade users of slow response times when using the ACE Portal. CBP is investigating these reports. CBP will issue another CSMS once this issue is cleared.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message detailing the arrival "process steps and conditions" of ACE M1 (e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail) for ocean carriers using both ACE M1 and the legacy Automated Manifest System (AMS). This new functionality deployed on December 14, 2011.