Addition of PGAs in ACE to Come Following End of Individual Pilots

Filing electronic data for Participating Government Agencies will likely become mandatory within the Automated Commercial Environment following the completion of individual pilots, said Maria Luisa Boyce, CBP’s senior advisor for trade engagement while speaking at a National Association of Foreign Trade Zones conference on Feb. 9. The use of the term "pilot" has been the source of some confusion and a lack of participation within ACE is among issues that lead to another delay to CBP's timelines for ACE (see 1602080042). CBP also posted a new version of its ACE Entry Summary Business Process document that reflects the new timeline (here).

CBP will roll out the mandatory filing dates for the PGAs as they complete the pilots in the coming months, said Boyce. There hasn't been and won't be any change to the December deadline for Single Window implementation as required by a 2014 Executive Order, she said. CBP will also publicize when each PGA pilot is over because there's been some confusion over who can participate, she said. While almost all companies are eligible for ongoing PGA pilots, some companies were reticent or unwilling to be among those to test the programs, she said. Industry needs to start filing within ACE because "it is happening," she said. There's already been an uptick in volume of filing within ACE over the last two weeks, she said.

The ACE programming for all of cargo release is done, said Vincent Annunziato, Director, Cargo Control & Release. The only hold-up is quota-related entry types, which have been an ongoing issue (see 1510190027), he said. Annunziato is now "building" functionality for Fish and Wildlife Service, he said. That agency is a big deal because it has "a huge amount of tariff codes that are affected" and it is one of the only three agencies with direct hold authority, he said.