U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a new "Trade Engagement Biweekly Reports" which summarize topics discussed during workshops held to develop the business requirements for Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Release 5.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to its Web site its quarterly report on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled Report to Congress: The Automated Commercial Environment. This report is dated March 31, 2005 and covers the January 1, 2005 - March 31, 2005 period.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP's) Office of Information and Technology has posted a notice to its Web site containing a list, as of August 17, 2005, of companies/persons offering data processing services to the trade community for the Automated Broker Interface (ABI).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a general notice regarding its plan to conduct a voluntary test of the Electronic Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) Admission Application Program. The following are highlights of this general notice:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued as an administrative message a memorandum that it states was mailed to the ACS/AES vendor community last week, as well as posted to CBP's website, regarding CBP's upcoming replacement of the existing 800 Dial-Up Service that currently supports the trade's interface to the Automated Commercial System (ACS) and Automated Export System (AES) with the new Trade Virtual Private Network (VPN) Solution. (See ITT's Online Archives or 08/12/05 ITT news, 05081205 for BP summary of this VPN memo and other documents.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has scheduled the next Customs Broker License Examination for Monday, October 3, 2005.

American Shipper reports that in an abrupt change of policy, the U.S. State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) will no longer approve export licenses for freight forwarders that have traditionally managed international shipments for American shippers of military technology. The article reports that the DDTC's policy is now that an applicant must be the entity who is selling the defense article to the designated recipient foreign company. (American Shipper, dated 08/08/05, ShippersNewswire@americanshipper.com )

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a general notice that announces changes in its National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) test concerning periodic monthly deposit of estimated duties and fees.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to the Pilot Bond Centralization Program section of its Web site a July 8, 2005 guidance document entitled "Latest News and Developments." According to CBP, this document provides information about the Pilot Bond Centralization Program and current issues, policies, and procedures for processing bond applications.

In mid-July 2005, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) posted separate application instructions requiring that all application information be submitted online for those seeking to participate in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). Separate application instructions are posted for the following groups: