CBP Issues Notices on Upcoming Feb. 24 ACE Deadline for Drawback and Reconciliation

CBP issued a pair Federal Register notices on its previously announced Feb. 24 deadline for drawback and reconciliation in ACE. On that date, drawback and reconciliation in the legacy Automated Commercial System will be decommissioned. “All reconciliation entries” on or after Feb. 24 “must be filed in ACE regardless of whether the underlying entry was filed in ACS or ACE and regardless of whether it is a replacement, substitution or follow-up to a reconciliation entry originally filed in ACS,” CBP said. ACE will also become the only authorized system for drawback entries beginning Feb. 24, the agency said.

Previously announced changes to both reconciliation and drawback will also take effect upon deployment in ACE, which was originally scheduled for October 2016 (see 1608110026 and 1608190031). Entry type 47 will replace the multiple entry types currently available for drawback filers, CBP said.

CBP’s drawback notice only covers “core” drawback functionality, it said. “A separate Federal Register document will be published containing proposed regulations regarding” drawback claims under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, CBP said. Software developers have expressed concerns over the short time period they will have for programming and testing between CBP’s final TFTEA drawback regulations and the Feb. 24 ACE deadline (see 1710040050). CBP did release draft programming instructions for TFTEA drawback at the end of September (see 1710020022).

According to CBP’s notice, several entry types will not be automated in ACE or ACS “due to low shipment volume:” 04 (appraisement), 05 (vessel repair), 24 (trade fair), 25 (permanent exhibition), 26 (warehouse – foreign-trade zone admission), 33 (aircraft and vessel supply for immediate exportation), 64 (barge movement), 65 (permit to proceed) and 66 (baggage).

(Federal Register 01/18/18)