CBP to Begin Third FWS ACE Pilot in April After Minor Changes to Filing Requirements

CBP is reopening its pilot of ACE filing for Fish and Wildlife Service-regulated entries, and is making some minor changes that it says will streamline submission of data and documents for participants, it said in a notice. The relaunched FWS filing pilot will become operational again as of April 6 after a hiatus of over 19 months, with revised filing requirements for two of the four filing options that were previously available in the test (see 1804200042).

One change affects “option 2,” where test participants can file FWS Form 3-177 and required documents with FWS, then either file the applicable eDecs confirmation number in the ACE partner government agency (PGA) message set, or, if the FWS documentation was filed on paper, disclaim code “D” in ACE. CBP will now add a Limited Data Set (LDS) FWS processing code “to indicate that the entire data set and required documents have already been filed directly with FWS. Thus, only limited data needs to be submitted in ACE, including the eDecs confirmation number or Disclaimer code ‘D,’” CBP said.

The other is to “option 4,” for filers of entries that do not contain regulated fish or wildlife but are flagged “FW1” because their tariff code is likely to contain animals or animal products. While filers of entries that do not contain any regulated fish or wildlife at all should continue to file disclaimer code “E” for such entries, filers of entries with both FWS-regulated and non-FWS-regulated animal components no longer have to use the code. Instead they should just submit a PGA message set for the FWS-regulated animal component, CBP said.

“To implement the modifications, CBP modified the programming in ACE to remove several record identifiers and other data elements,” the agency said. CBP is also making “other technical programming changes” that “have created efficiencies.” “All FWS-staffed designated ports are now consolidated under the subheading 'Wildlife Ports' in the CATAIR guidelines for FWS to align with the requirements” in FWS regulations, CBP said.

This latest iteration of the pilot will be the third. The original pilot launched in 2016 was discontinued after a lack of participation, amid industry concerns over the data required by CBP in ACE (see 1701190011). The second pilot began in 2018 after filing requirements were overhauled, but was only scheduled to run for 90 days before being halted for a review of the test results. “Following the suspension of the modified test, CBP worked closely with FWS and members of the trade to improve the design of the FWS test,” CBP said.

(Federal Register 03/05/20)