CBP's Written Policies for Automation Lagging Behind Deployment, Says Magnus

CBP's slowness to write policies for automation as the agency moves quickly to deploy new capabilities is one area of concern ahead of the coming Automation Commercial Environment deadlines, said Amy Magnus, A.N. Deringer's director of customs affairs and compliance. Magnus, who was recently chosen to be on the next CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations, discussed ACE on a March 31 panel at the Northeast Trade and Transportation conference hosted by the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade in Newport, R.I. "With automation, there are changes in processes," she said. "With changes in processes, there really should be updated policies to go along with it. And updated policies in written form so that we aren't guessing, so everybody knows what the rules are." While CBP should be applauded for moving quickly on the agile deployment of ACE "they sometimes are not as quick to roll out written policies and procedures around that automation," she said.

Magnus pointed to CBP Form 7501, which "doesn't exist in an ACE environment," as an example. "There's no policy about what the importer, or for that matter the broker, is to keep or maintain to prove what was submitted to customs in an electronic format." There needs to be some written description of the processes involved and it needs to come at the "same pace that the automation is unveiled," she said. The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, in which Magnus has a leadership role, recently pushed CBP to update the ACE Business Rules (see 1503170022). CBP didn't respond to a request for comment.

Importers and brokers should be aware of some of the new enforcement potentials that come through ACE, said Magnus. When CBP looks at the post-summary corrections in ACE, the agency will be able to see what changes are made and where, she said. Compared to the manual environment, the automation will make it easier for CBP to monitor and keep track of all the changes, said Magnus. "As much as ACE is a tool for trade in general," never "forget that customs is also an enforcement agency" and ACE gives it a higher degree of sophistication, she said.

There also remains some big filing types that still can't be filed in ACE, said Magnus. Deringer, which was an "early adopter" of ACE, still only does about 80 percent of summary filing in ACE, she said. That's because CBP hasn't yet released the programming specifications for some major filing types, including temporary importation bonds, foreign trade zones, warehouse entries, or "anything quota," she said. Even once CBP does release those specifications, the software vendors will still need some time to program and test the updates, she said. Asked how long it took for Magnus to get comfortable within ACE, she said "we've been working on this from day one, but we're still not there."

There's also some big gaps for ACE release, which started out only for air mode but is now open to other modes, said Magnus. While CBP's recent inclusion of all modes of transportation within ACE release is an important step (here), there's still only about 5 percent of filers using ACE release, she said. Additionally, "ACE release is not at all functional for any other government agency at this time," she said. Both entry summary and cargo release will be required to go through ACE as of Nov. 1. The idea that filers could go back to paper filing if not ready for the Nov. 1 deadline is "insane," both for the trade and CBP, said Magnus. "I hope we're going to be ready and I hope there is some kind of contingency plan for those who aren't ready," she said.

The change to eBond within ACE has been a useful update (see 1412290008), said Magnus. "If you need a continuous bond, this is a good thing that they did," she said. There's also ongoing work toward a simplified summary between CBP and a working group (see 14080517), she said. While there's thought to be some efficiencies to having simplified summary, which would allow for filing an entry summary once a month with line level liquidation, the basic ACE needs to be finished before considering "bells and whistles," said Magnus.