U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a general notice announcing that effective August 20, 2007, it has expanded the processes that are supported in the Automated Commercial Environment e-Manifest: Truck system.
According to Trade Support Network (TSN) sources,1,2 Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) A23 will be phased-in for ACE accounts on a filer-by-filer basis instead of deploying overnight, or phasing the system in on a port-by-port basis.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a press release regarding the results of a recent survey of CBP officers using the Automated Commercial Environment which revealed low satisfaction with ACE's e-Manifest: Truck processing capabilities due to problems with system reliability, data errors, and insufficient real-time help.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site an updated version of its lengthy document on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled "ACE Frequently Asked Questions."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted "fact sheets" to its Web site containing information about the following new or enhanced Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) account types that will be available under Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) A1:
American Shipper states that the Trade Support Network has convinced U.S. Customs and Border Protection to implement ACE ESAR A2 filer-by-filer over a period of time (e.g. 6-8 weeks), instead of flipping a switch to a new process for all customs entry filers, or phasing the system in port-by-port. This will give filers time to test the stability of their systems, prevent undue disruption, etc. In addition, CBP officials state that the target implementation date of ESAR A2 has changed from October 2008 to 2009 or beyond; however, some applications within the module could be implemented sooner. (American Shipper, 08/07/07, www.americanshipper.com )
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its Instructions for the Customs Broker License Examination, which provides information for the October 2007 exam. It covers much of the same information as CBP's previously released Notice of Examination, but has some additional details (e.g., silent calculators are allowed, examinees may keep the exam booklet, etc.). (See ITT's Online Archives or 08/01/07 news, 07080110, for BP summary of CBP's Notice of Examination: October 2007 Customs Broker Examination, which announced that applications for the October exam are due August 31, 2007.) (CBP exam instructions, posted 08/08/07, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/broker_management/broker_exam/exam_instructions.ctt/exam_instructions.doc)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of August 6, 2007. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, tobacco, certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haiti HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly TRQ/TPL commodity report, dated 08/06/07, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
At the Automated Commercial Environment Exchange VI conference held July 30-August 1, 2007 in Brooklyn, NY, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials discussed the deployment of ACE Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) A1, which is currently scheduled to be deployed on August 25, 20071.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has updated its Web-based training (WBT) for the Automated Commercial Environment to include a course, entitled "Enhanced ACE Accounts and Master Data (A1)," on the new functionality that will be provided in the ACE Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) A1 release.