CBP Issues ACE Downtime Policy

CBP released its first version of ACE outage guidelines, the agency said in a CSMS message.
"CBP expects that this will allow trade partners to better understand their role in maintaining the flow of trade during ACE system interruptions and will serve as a basis for their individual downtime policies and procedures," the agency said. The agency said in documents for the Feb. 28 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting that it planned to release the downtime document by the end of the month (see 1802210034).

The document "is intended to provide trade partners with a comprehensive view of CBP downtime policy," CBP said. "The policies and procedures identified in this document reflect current CBP downtime policy provided to CBP ports and field offices." Both "planned and unplanned downtime has created operational issues and increased overall risk for CBP and its partners," the agency said. "CBP is working to mitigate risk during downtime and ensuring that security, enforcement, health and safety, and legal compliance are all met while still providing as much facilitated movement as possible during system downtime."

The guidance includes a list of responsibilities for CBP offices and the trade for outages. Among the "trade partner responsibilities" will be to "notify CBP locally of system issues that are impacting operations" because these "may be specific to one or a small number of operations and not system wide." Next the trade should identify shipments needing expedited clearance and "provide appropriate documentation as needed to CBP when requested or when requesting releases under downtime procedures," it said. Also, "trade participants should keep copies of documentation readily available for inspection by CBP officers until electronic transmissions resume," the agency said.