FTZ Deployment Moved Up, ACE 'Informed Compliance Period' to Begin Nov. 1, Says CBP's Whittenburg

CBP moved up the deployment date for Foreign Trade Zone entries in the Automated Commercial Environment following some initial concerns about adequate time for testing, said Cynthia Whittenburg, CBP executive director-trade policy and programs during the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America government affairs conference on Sept. 28. CBP previously said FTZ entries wouldn't be available for testing until after Feb. 27, alongside all other quota-related entry types that are scheduled to be deployed on the same day that ACE becomes mandatory. That plan raised some concerns among the Trade Support Network (see 1509100015).

CBP is now "willing to take the risk of deploying FTZ ahead of quota functionality," she said. Whittenburg said she now expects the FTZ functionality to be added in October. CBP recently decided to push back some of the mandatory use dates for ACE in response to readiness concerns for the system (see 1509010017).

CBP will start an "informed compliance period" for Automated Commercial Environment use beginning Nov. 1, said Whittenburg. Ahead of that date, the agency plans to issue an interim final rule that will formally lay out CBP's plans for transitioning from the Automated Commercial System to ACE, she said. During the informed compliance period, filers that can transmit in ACE, should file in ACE. Those that aren't ready for the Partner Government Agency message set will be allowed to file both electronically and in paper form as needed, she said. While such hybrid filing will be allowed during that period, filers shouldn't move to paper filing for agencies that are already mostly electronic, such as the Food and Drug Administration, she said.

As a result, "we are on the hook for having all the capability deployed and ready for use for" most of the agencies that have cargo hold authority by Nov. 1, she said. CBP will soon publish a notice for the Document Image System, she said. The agency is a little behind on publishing the notice as it was hoped to be in place before Nov. 1, she said. The informed compliance period will end on Feb. 28, after which all filing will be required in ACE for agencies that are set up for electronic filing, she said.