CBP and ITDS Update on ACE (M1, PSC, Business "Reset," Etc.)

November 1, 2010 by Karen Marzullo|Top News

On October 27, 2010, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and International Trade Data System officials held a webinar providing an update on the status of the Automated Commercial Environment.

The following are highlights of their comments:

CBP Expects to Pilot M1 in February 2011

CBP is looking to pilot ACE e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail (M1) in February 2011. CBP recently issued a Federal Register notice requesting applicants to test the M1 pilot. In its notice, CBP stated that the pilot would commence no earlier than December 22, 2010.

(See ITT’s Online Archives or 10/20/10 news, 10102007, for BP summary of CBP’s FR notice.)

M1 Will be Last Big Release, Future Releases to be Incremental

Officials noted that M1 is their biggest release and is likely to be their last big functionality release. Moving forward, they expect smaller, incremental releases for ACE.

CBP Still Expects Full PSC Functionality by Spring 2011

CBP still expects to deliver Post Summary Correction functionality¹ to all users by spring 2011. They plan to roll it out internally before then.

(CBP recently announced that PSCs would be delayed until spring 2011 due to trade concerns. See ITT’s Online Archives or 10/04/10 news, 10100418, for BP summary.)

During ACE Steady-State, CBP to “Reset” Way it Does Business

In fiscal year 2011, CBP will transition ACE to a steady state (operations and maintenance mode). During this phase, CBP is basically looking to “reset the way it does business;” it will be taking a focused look at its business requirements. CBP then hopes to move forward with these business parameters, and make them the basis for future ACE functionality. An official added that CBP would need to work quickly on this reset.

(See ITT’s Online Archives or 03/05/10 news, 10030505, for BP summary of CBP’s FY 2011 budget request, which stated that in FY 2011 ACE would begin entering into an operation and maintenance steady state, and forgo development of enhanced modernization capabilities.)

Scanned Document Capability to Benefit CBP and Trade

During the recent Interagency Import Safety Conference, government agency attendees saw a successful demonstration of a scanned document being submitted by the trade and viewed by a government agency. This scanned document/EDI imaging capability will allow for document submission, storage, and retrieval for both CBP and the trade community.

(See ITT’s Online Archives or 10/22/10 news, 10102210, for BP summary of the conference.)

“Single Window” Not Yet a Reality Due to ACE Delays

The single window concept has yet to become a reality and this is partly due to the delays in overall ACE schedule. The delays made it hard for CBP to focus on the ITDS single window concept and made it difficult for other agencies to plan their investments in ITDS/in their own IT systems that are intended to work with ACE.

In Meantime, CBP Making Progress on New CATAIR Record Set, Etc.

Last year the ITDS Board recommended three critical short term objectives to advance the ACE/ITDS program. Progress to date noted during the webinar include:

Other agency CATAIR record set. Add certain data elements to the ABI message sets that other agencies want and make it available to the agencies, similar to the addition of data elements added for the Lacey Act declaration. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 02/19/10 news, 09021905, for BP summary of CBP announcing a new PGA CATAIR chapter for Lacey Act, etc. data.)

There is a draft CATAIR record set for the data to be added to the ABI message sets. An official hoped that the trade would be able to offer input on the draft chapter after they have a version ready to be shared.

Document images. CBP accept image forms/scans of paper documents. Note that CBP has already begun work on this and demonstrated it to certain agencies (see above).
Agency interoperability. CBP and the other ITDS agencies can agree on standards for technical interoperability so that the systems of different agencies could “talk” to each other. CBP has already begun work on this.

These three priorities will lay the foundation for electronic collection and sharing of data and provide the agencies with valuable experience about operating in electronic environments.

ACECargo Release is 2½ - 3 Years Away

CBP is currently developing a business case and acquisitions strategy for the development of ACE cargo release capabilities. Cargo release is 2½ - 3 years away.

Cargo release will provide for collection of additional data elements to support participating government agencies (PGAs) as well as CBP. It includes ITDS/PGA admissibility functionality; multi-modal manifest (one manifest system for all modes); filing of release data and corresponding responses; access to bill of lading (BOL) information; in-bond functionality, including in-transit and permits to transfer; etc.

(In August 2010, CBP officials stated that after M1, the next top priorities would be air manifests and cargo release. However, because air manifests will depend on the infrastructure that M1 will lay down, CBP’s focus will shift primarily toward cargo release in the interim. See ITT’s Online Archives or 09/13/10 news, 10091312, for BP summary.)

After ACE Cargo Release, May Focus on a “Single Window” for Exports

After work has been completed on cargo release, ITDS may focus its attention on an automated single window for exports.

¹CBP has previously stated that a PSC transaction will be a “full replace” of the existing ACE entry summary version. It will replace the existing Post Entry Amendment (PEA) hardcopy process for ACE entry summaries. PSCs will only be submitted for types 01 and 03 ACE entry summaries. PSCs will be processed through all existing validations including Census warnings. Liquidation will be automatically unset for PSCs so they can be processed.

(See ITT’s Online Archives or 10/26/10 news, 10102650, for BP summary announcing CBP would hold an ACE Portal webinar for importers/brokers on Nov 3.

See ITT’s Online Archives or 10/13/10 news, 10101308, for BP summary of DHS finding ACE “moderately high risk” during a review.

See ITT’s Online Archives or 09/13/10 news, 10091312, for BP summary of CBP providing an ACE update at the August COAC meeting.)