On October 12, 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection held a webinar on the ACE Courtesy Notice of Liquidation Report, AM-100. While much of this information has been provided in previous CBP notices, the webinar provided new details on the availability of the AM-100 for ACE and ACS-filed entry summaries. New details were also provided on the availability of the bill of lading number for the AM-100 and other account management reports.

At the October 4, 2011 COAC meeting, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials provided an update on the Automated Commercial Environment and the International Trade Data System since the previous COAC meeting in August 2011. According to CBP, ACE continues to be among the agency’s top business priorities. CBP officials also provided an update on its activities on M1, ITDS, Cargo Release, the September 2011 Trade Support Network Plenary, and ACE for Export Processing.

On October 27, 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Bersin hosted a series of roundtable discussions with leaders of trade associations on their issues and concerns. The President of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), a domestic textile industry association, presented the NCTO's concerns with illegal textile and apparel transshipments involving falsified certificates of origin. CBP also discussed its initiatives ACE, simplified entry pilot, and the Centers for Excellence and Expertise with other roundtable participants.

Senator Baucus, the year is coming to a close and by all appearances Alan Bersin is doing what you asked of him almost one and one-half years ago during the May 2010 hearing on his nomination as CBP Commissioner -- to renew and strengthen his focus on the agency’s historical mission to facilitate international trade. You had put him on notice that both the Senate and Finance Committee would be reviewing his record and deciding whether he would be allowed to continue his service as CBP Commissioner beyond December 31, 2011.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated Appendix D for the Customs Automated Manifest Interface Requirements (CAMIR) for the ACE Ocean Manifest (M1). Appendix D provides a complete listing of valid disposition codes. (See ITT's Online Archives 11102704 for summary of CBP announcing upcoming changes to CAMIR for Ocean Manifest.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued CSMS #11-000270 to announce that the 2011 ACE Customer Satisfaction Survey due date is extended (for the second time) until midnight November 2, 2011. CBP states that its goal is to obtain a response level that would be more statistically significant than in past years. This will ensure that the key issues identified in the survey are the areas that need attention to improve ACE. The survey is voluntary and anonymous and will only take between 5-10 minutes to complete, unless comments are provided to the survey, which CBP encourages. The survey may be accessed here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum on the renewal of the Andean Trade Preference Act and the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act on November 5, 2011 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).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum on the renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences program on November 5, 2011 and the procedures for duty refunds for entries filed during the period in which GSP lapsed (January 1, 2011 through November 4, 2011).

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

Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for October 17-21, 2011 in case they were missed last week.