U.S. Customs and Border Protection has added some functionality to its Automated Commercial Environment deployment schedule, delayed the deployment of some other functions, and confirmed the deployment of still others. CBP notes that the updated schedule set forth below is subject to change.
ACE functionality, including data reports, can help importers and others boost compliance and duty savings efforts. For more information, please contact customs attorney Lenny Feldman at (305) 894-1011.
Broker Management. CBP has pushed back from Sept. 28 to Dec. 7 the scheduled deployment of functionality that will streamline the employee reporting process for customs brokers, enhance messaging to the field broker management officers, and automate the generation of broker licenses and permits in ACE. CBP states that after this date ACE will no longer allow trade users to delete an employee through the mass update spreadsheet and trade users will need to provide their current employer information on this spreadsheet.
CBP is also continuing to target August 2020 for transitioning all brokers to a single national permit, which will eliminate multiple district permits and waivers.
Mass Processing. Enhancements to the mass liquidation functionality and a new mass update capability for post-release activity have been postponed from Nov. 23 to Jan. 18. CBP has added to its deployment schedule, also for Jan. 18, a mass processing enhancement that will enable it to retroactively process Generalized System of Preferences refunds.
Risk-Based Bonding. CBP has newly scheduled ACE deployments for risk-based bonding that will (a) reduce the risk of uncollected revenue associated with antidumping and countervailing duty entries (March 2020), (b) provide CBP users with a single view of all bonds for a given entry/entry summary number (July 2020), and (c) automate the analytical formula for importer/broker continuous bonds and allow for the addition of importer-specific risk factors into that formula to more accurately calculate continuous bond amounts (Sept. 30, 2020).
Manifests. CBP has added to its schedule the first of three phases to enhance truck manifest functionality, which will allow users to save down information for commodities, manifests, or bills; add bill of lading types; indicate whether an entry is on file for each bill of lading; and eliminate the need for multiple screen clicks, thus reducing manifest and bill creation time. This functionality is anticipated to be made available for testing in December 2019 and deployed in March 2020. CBP also plans to release at an as-yet-unspecified date an enhancement that will allow trade members to manage their own vessel manifest confidentiality requests via an online process.
Automated Surety Interface. In June 2020 CBP plans to deploy functionality that will provide additional cargo release and entry summary information in real time to sureties and surety agents via the bond status message when a predefined event occurs.
Section 321 Shipments. As of Sept. 28 CBP deployed the automation of data collection on shipments under section 321, which allows up to $800 worth of goods to be imported free of duty and tax by one person on one day. The development of an entry type 86 for ABI submission of section 321 shipments is expected to give CBP greater visibility into low-value shipments, provide partner government agencies with required data on such shipments, and allow filers to transmit transaction data (e.g., manufacturer, importer, and consignee information) via ABI and receive electronic release messages from CBP for such shipments.
AD/CV Redesign. CBP deployed Oct. 5 functionality that enhances the AD/CV duty order case management user interface and provides for streamlined input and searchability. Among other things, search results will include company history and third-country case information.
Collections. Release 1, focusing on the back end processing of automated clearinghouse debit/credit transactions, was deployed Sept. 7.
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