U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that its maintenance activities for ACE that were started on Saturday March 10, 2012 2300 EST are now complete and ACE is now available. On March 9, CBP advised the trade that the regular ACE Maintenance Window might be extended Sunday, March 11 and that the extended window was scheduled from 5:00 am EDT - 6:45 pm EDT. (CSMS #12-000077, dated 03/11/12)
Officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently stated that importers who have not received a Generalized System of Preferences SPI “A” refund by March 31, 2012 should assume that the claim “fell through the cracks” and file a written refund request by the April 18, 2012 deadline to ensure those refunds are received.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.
The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, Inc., has posted the following U.S. Customs and Border Protection's presentation documents for the March 6-8, 2012 Trade Software Developer Technical Seminar. During the seminar, CBP officials will discuss programming changes for existing and new functionality scheduled to be delivered as part of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that the ACE Rail Manifest Implementation Guidelines have been updated to include the changes needed for Instruments of International Traffic (IIT) residue reporting.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Resource Contact Guide, which lists ACE topics and the appropriate e-mail address or phone number to contact for questions on those topics, as well as hours of operation.
On March 2, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection advised the trade that the regular ACE Maintenance Window (Saturday 2300 EST - Sunday 0500 EST) might be extended Sunday, March 4, 2012 and, if needed, the extended window was scheduled from 5am EST - 6:30pm EST. CBP states that the extended ACE maintenance is now complete and ACE is up and running. (CSMS #12-000066, dated 03/04/12)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) user guide on In-Bond Authorization for rail and sea carriers. With the deployment of ACE e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1), rail and sea carriers will have the ability to create a list of authorized Type 2 In-Bond users in their ACE Secure Data Portal Accounts. This functionality will allow the carrier to control who can obligate their Type 2 custodial bonds (CBP Form 301). Although carriers are not required to utilize this functionality, carriers who choose to control access to their bonds have the ability to indicate the specific ports and lengths of time a carrier or broker is authorized to obligate their bond.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its February 2012 Trade Account Owner (TAO) Update, which features information on e-Manifest: Rail and Sea (M1) and other ACE-related topics. CBP encourages carriers to become certified in M1 as CBP soon expects to publish a Federal Register notice in March 2012 to make ACE the only CBP-approved EDI for rail and sea manifest transmissions, etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has newly posted the recordings and presentation slides for three webinars that are a part of a series of live trade outreach webinars that CBP hosts and subsequently makes available online. The newly posted webinars include: (1) the PIC Business Case ITDS Report on the use of e-commerce data such as global product numbers and electronic product catalogs; (2) running the new Multi-Modal Manifest Reports in ACE; and (3) Rail and Carrier ACE Portal navigation. Topics of previous webinars available for viewing include the role of the broker, account management restructuring, ACE Post Summary Corrections, simplified entry and financial processes, cargo security risks, ACE courtesy notices of liquidation, etc.