No More Changes to ACE PGA Requirements Before February Deadline, Says COAC

CBP should “lock down” Automated Commercial Environment business rules, implementation guides, and record layouts for all partner government agencies (PGAs), allowing no additional changes prior to the February 2016 ACE mandatory use date in order to give filers time to implement and test PGA programming, said the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) in a recommendation adopted at the group’s Oct. 29 meeting. “The agencies have had enough time to finalize their layouts,” said the recommendation, put forward by the COAC One U.S. Government at the Border (1USG) committee. “Importers and filers need to be afforded the same courtesy, in terms of having adequate time to complete and test their own programming.”

Currently, agencies’ PGA message set requirements are still “moving targets,” said 1USG Co-chair Susie Hoeger of Abbott Laboratories, prior to introducing the recommendation. However, ACE filing is required by Feb. 28 for Food and Drug Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Lacey Act shipments. “Implementation may have been pushed to provide the agencies with more time to adapt, but importers and filers also need to be afforded more time for internal programming, training and data collection,” which won’t begin in earnest until requirements are finalized, she said.

“Locking down” PGA requirements now for FDA, NHTSA and APHIS Lacey Act would “curtail” ongoing discussions between the trade and PGAs aimed at resolving outstanding issues and “trying to find that sweet spot for what works” in terms of new data elements, said Tim Skud, Treasury Department deputy assistant secretary-tax, trade and tariff policy, in his response to the recommendation. “Now is a powerful word,” he cautioned. “Everybody understands the urgency of providing a certain target for software providers, filers and importers. We also have to have to get a quality product.”

But with ACE’s first mandatory date less than 20 weeks out, all sides need to be “realistic” about the short window for implementation, responded Amy Magnus of A.N. Deringer, also a 1USG co-chair. Magnus is still waiting for FDA capability from her software provider, and once she gets it will have to test it and train her staff, she said. “If the data continues to change, and the software provider has to keep going back and changing their programming,” then there “isn’t even time to get started,” said Magnus. “Time flies. We’re looking at the end of October, and we have to be fully ready and functioning and live by the end of February. It’s not enough time.”

The recommendation was one of several made by the COAC related to implementation of ACE PGA requirements. Notably, COAC adopted a 1USG recommendation to delay to FDA’s Feb. 28 ACE deadline until “later in 2016” if the agency continues to include new “non-critical data requirements” that don’t affect admissibility. It also recommended that, unless FDA intends to continue to pre-validate data after the end of its pilot, FDA “should test real/un-validated data to ensure all potential issues are identified and addressed.” If FDA intends to continue pre-validating data, “it should be done one time at a master data level, not at a shipment level,” said the recommendation. “Pre-validating data on a shipment level is not sustainable by the trade or the agency.”

Other PGA pilot-related recommendations included more information for importers on how to join pilots, and more timely responses to applications from importers that want to participate. CBP should also relay “key issues and learnings” from the pilots “as soon as they are identified, to give as much lead time as possible in the development of contingency plans by importers and filers,” said COAC. PGAs “should evaluate staffing levels to ensure they are able to turn around releases in the new shorter timelines,” it said, because “automated PGA data may shorten the time the PGA has to review data for cargo release.” CBP and the PGAs should also “establish a true 1USG process, whereby requests for documents and/or exams are made once on a multi-agency basis, and the same information or exam results are used by all agencies,” the COAC recommended.

More generally, the COAC recommended that all data elements “included in the customs entry and are also required by the PGAs should be fed automatically without having to re-key the data.” CBP should also “incorporate automated house bill release in ACE Cargo Release and companion manifest capabilities where it does not exist,” and “should implement an eBond process for DOT bonds.” The COAC also asked for “clear guidance” on the hold authority of CBP and PGAs, as well as what authority PGAs may have over imported goods after they have cleared the border. “The trade community needs to understand its obligations both at the border and after importation,” it said.