During a February 22, 2008 press conference call, several trade members of the Trade Support Network1 discussed a variety of issues, including an update on the status of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's proposal to have a minimal number of edits and validations in the Automated Commercial Environment system (commonly referred to as "Edit-Lite").2
Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)
The Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) is the CBP's electronic system through which the international trade community reports imports and exports and the government determines admissibility.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a fact sheet on its scheduled fall 2008 introduction of Automated Commercial Environment Rail and Sea electronic manifest (e-Manifest)1 for advance cargo information purposes.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site various materials related to presentations made at the February 5-7, 2008 meeting of the Trade Support Network (TSN) held in Dallas, Texas.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its "ACE Workplan Schedule," which provides a list of the changes and/or fixes to the Automated Commercial Environment and other systems it interfaces with that were/are scheduled for deployment on February 2, 2008 and April 5, 2008. CBP has previously stated that this list contains only those changes and/or fixes that impact the trade community.
According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidance document and CBP sources, an Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest update that will give truck carriers and customs brokers the capability to arrive and export in-bonds1 by equipment (trailer/container, etc.) has been delayed to March 20082.
The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General has issued a report on the major management challenges facing DHS. The OIG states that while DHS has made progress creating the third largest Cabinet agency with multiple missions, it still has much to do to establish a cohesive, efficient, and effective organization.
In December 2007, U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted a notice announcing the phased enforcement of mandatory Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest: Truck for advance cargo information purposes at all land border ports in Alaska beginning February 11, 2008.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of February 4, 2008. 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, Haitian 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 02/04/08, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recently posted Automated Commercial Environment "Topic" documents providing information on various ACE Secure Data Portal issues, etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that the New Orleans client representative branch office will be closed on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 due to the observance of the local Mardi Gras holiday. CBP states that the office will reopen on Wednesday, February 6, 2008.