Officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection now state that the planned ACE enhancement to provide the original ACE entry summary filer with visibility to the Post Summary Correction done by another party is "on hold," as resources are being directed to e-Manifest: Rail and Ocean (M1) programming needs.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Information and Technology has posted an updated list of companies/persons offering data processing services to the trade community for the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) as of December 12, 2011.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an overview and a list of frequently asked questions and answers on its Industry Integration Centers, which were formerly referred to as Centers for Excellence and Expertise (CEE). Among other things, CBP provides information on who can participate in these Centers, how these Centers will affect the processing of shipments, and what benefits they provide.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an update on their Generalized System of Preferences refund process, stating that the agency has begun the refund process for duties paid during the period from January 1, 2011 through November 4, 2011. According to sources, this refund process had been delayed for about a month due to problems with the data.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a December 9, 2011 press release on the ACE Simplified Entry test and the nine brokers selected to participate, along with some of the brokers' clients that were selected too. An associated fact sheet dated August 2011 (here) is provided as a link, along with a July 2011 trade outreach seminar on SE (here) is available.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a press release that recaps some of the highlights from the December 7, 2011 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection, otherwise known as COAC. Among other things the release lists the nine brokers, large and small, selected for the Simplified Entry test, along with their associated importer stakeholders such as LL Bean and Lear Corporation. The release also notes that after Commissioner Bersin left the meeting early to travel to another meeting in El Paso, Deputy Commissioner Aguilar stepped in, ending the meeting on his own note of inspiration. "Based on the energy, the momentum, the interaction, and the dynamic nature of the relationship that has developed, we have had a really good year, but I think it will be an even better year next year."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message providing a projected timeline for decommissioning the Automated Manifest System (AMS) for rail and sea manifests and transitioning to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). CBP anticipates that the Federal Register Notice naming ACE as the only CBP-approved electronic data interchange (EDI) for the transmission of rail and sea manifests will be published by the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2012 and that rail and sea manifest capabilities for the AMS in the Automated Commercial System (ACS) will be decommissioned within six months of that publication date.

In December 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated its eight Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on voided Importer ID input Records (CBP Form 5106), making one substantive change. In the third FAQ, CBP clarifies that acceptable proof of an Employee Identification Number (EIN) includes a preprinted document that is received from the IRS.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that on Monday, December 12, 2011, Occupy Wall Street Oakland (OWS Oakland) is expected to join cities including San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland and Tacoma for a West Coast port shutdown. Organizers are planning to stage mass protests to shut down (blockade) west coast ports similar to the shutdown action taken at the Port of Oakland on November 2, 2011. The Port of Oakland has advised CBP that the decision to shut down various terminals will not be made prior to December 9 at 1400.

At the December 7, 2011 COAC meeting, CBP officials provided an update on the status of various “Role of the Broker” projects. According to officials, CBP is preparing regulatory changes to (i) establish continuing education requirements for brokers, (ii) clarify that customs business must be conducted within the territory of the U.S., and (iii) establish bona fides for broker vetting of powers of attorney. CBP is also pursuing a statutory amendment to change from triennial to biannual status reporting and is working on a program to allow brokers to pre-certify importers for the Importer Self Assessment (ISA) program.