Delay of ACE Deadline for Reconciliation, Drawback May Not Be Enough, Customs Lawyer Says

CBP and the trade community may still not be ready for ACE drawback and reconciliation by Oct. 29, despite CBP’s recent delay of the deadline, customs lawyer Michael Cerny said during a panel discussion at a National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference in Washington Sept. 12. Both systems have been “barely tested,” and software developers still aren’t ready with programming, said Cerny, who chairs the Trade Support Network’s drawback subcommittee. CBP’s CATAIR requirements and business rules still aren’t set with less than two months before the deadline, a situation reminiscent of the approach to CBP’s original November 2015 deadline for all of ACE, he said.

Complicating matters is CBP’s late realization that the ACE certification testing environment wasn’t working for reconciliation and drawback because of a glitch in the system wherein no import entries were available to reconcile or claim drawback. Only since the third week in August has ACE certification been available, with “dummy” entries added for testing. Software developers need business rules and CATAIR (CBP and Trade Automated Interface Requirements) to be set before they complete their programming and subsequent testing, and filers need time after that to adjust their business practices. Meanwhile, CBP reconciliation personnel are only now undergoing training, and drawback personnel won’t be trained until the end of September, raising concerns over the agency’s own readiness. CBP was not immediately available for comment.

CBP recently delayed its original Oct. 1 deadline for post-release processes in ACE (see 1609070049), after trade groups asked for additional time due to readiness concerns (see 1608310049). The trade community had asked for 60 days, mindful of the Obama administration’s overarching mandate of completing ACE “core” by the end of the year, but were only given 29, Cerny said. Though that still may not be enough time, moving to Oct. 29 does take the deadline out of the “reconciliation season” surrounding the end of some companies’ fiscal years on Sept. 30. “I think they saw this was a potential nightmare,” he said.