COAC Urges Standardized, Detailed PGA Messaging in ACE

CBP needs to ensure the messages Partner Government Agencies send through the Automated Commercial Environment are easy for the trade community to understand by providing adequate detail on which agency is involved and standardizing PGA messaging, said the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations’ 1 U.S. Government at the Border (1USG) subcommittee in recommendations presented to the agency at the Feb. 11 COAC meeting in San Francisco.

The subcommittee provided six recommendations on PGA messaging during the meeting, all of which were approved by the full COAC. Several were related to making sure the trade community knows what agency is involved and why, including a recommendation that CBP ensure PGA messages identify the agency involved at the line or entry level by using an “Agency Program Code” in each message. Messages, whether from CBP or a PGA, should also say whether they are automatically generated or the result “of some manual review,” so that agencies and the trade community can assess trade facilitation efforts.

Messages should also follow standard formats uniformly applied across each PGA, recommended COAC. To that end, CBP should ”map the normal (automated) process flow for each PGA” and “identify the messages that individual PGAs will utilize.” COAC said it is working on a data dictionary to assist CBP in this task. CBP should also make sure an acknowledgment of receipt followed by status messages are received from the PGA through CBP when data or an electronic document is presented to the PGA as part of the cargo release process, said COAC.

A high-level CBP official concurred with the recommendations, calling them “extremely practical and actionable.” Cynthia Whittenburg, executive director of Trade Policy and Programs at CBP’s Office of International Trade, said the agency ultimately wants the messages that are communicated between the government and the trade community to “clearly articulate the desired action.” She said COAC’s data dictionary would be an “extremely practical tool” that CBP will use and build upon as it continues to revise definitions to ensure the government and the trade community are on the same page.

In response to the recommendations, as well as others related to the development of the single window, an FDA official stressed the important role of data validation in decreasing the number of errors in importer submissions that interfere with the agency’s efforts to develop a risk-based targeting approach. Development of the International Trade Data System will allow the agency to build more validation processes to catch instances where importers fail to submit data or enter information that does not match agency databases, said Douglas Stearn, director of FDA’s Office of Enforcement and Import Operations. FDA is also working on its own internal databases to increase interoperability and cut down on instances where there are data mismatches that may encourage internal review. Finally, FDA is encouraging filers and brokers to build their relationships with importers to make sure the data is correct, said Stearn.