On June 18, 2004, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4567, the fiscal year (FY) 2005 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). (See ITT's Online Archives or 07/08/04 news, 04070810, for BP summary.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued the June 2004 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Modernization newsletter, which is highlighted below:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message stating that with the initial rollout of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Release 3 periodic payment test, the Office of Field Operations in conjunction with the CBP Modernization Office is asking participants to make a minor programming/software change.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site new or modified Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) messages for Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Release 4 - Truck Manifest.

On June 18, 2003, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4567, the fiscal year (FY) 2005 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

On June 17, 2004, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4520, the American Jobs Creation Act, which would, among other things, repeal the Foreign Sales Corporation/Extraterritorial Income Act (FSC/ETI) tax regime, extend the Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) and other user fees, etc.

On June 18, 2004, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4567, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2005. In addition, on June 17, 2004, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its own version of a fiscal year (FY) 2005 DHS appropriations bill (S. 2537), which as been placed on the Senate's legislative calendar. See future issues of ITT for additional details on congressional action on FY 2005 DHS appropriations legislation.)

The Journal of Commerce reports that the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) will take longer to complete than planned because, among other things, the need for anti-terrorism features in the system has apparently set back its development. The article notes that while U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) originally hoped to have ACE constructed over five years, with completion in 2007 or 2008, officials now state that with the added technology and the need for additional funding, ACE is likely to be on an eight- to ten-year schedule, which would have it completed by 2010 at the earliest. (JoC dated 06/21-27/04, www.joc.com.)

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a press release announcing that the signing of the U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which was previously scheduled for June 11, 2004, has been postponed until June 15, 2004. (See ITT's Online Archives or 04/06/04 news, 04040615, for previous BP summary on the release of the draft text of the U.S.-Morocco FTA. (USTR press release 2004-51, dated 06/07/04, available at http://www.ustr.gov/releases/2004/06/04-51.pdf.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice announcing that on June 14, 2004 it launched a pilot test of Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Periodic Payment features and other account revenue capabilities.