Highsmith Says Next COAC to Meet Soon; ACE Collection Update Set for 2024 Completion

RANCHO MIRAGE, California -- CBP has faced some delays with beginning the next term of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, but it is very close to holding its first meeting, said AnnMarie Highsmith, CBP’s executive assistant commissioner in the Office of Trade. Highsmith also said the agency is on track to revamp its system for collecting customs duties, taxes and fees by 2024, and said its Section 321 data pilot has been a “big success.”

Highsmith, speaking Oct. 15 during the Western Cargo Conference, said the change in administration had pushed back the start of COAC's 16th term and the agency’s work on the 21st Century Customs Framework. “Those of us who've been around for a while, we know that when you have a change of administration, this is one of the things that happens with some regularity,” she said. “We roll the boulder up the hill, but the administrative inertia gets us.” But Highsmith said CBP is “pretty far through the [membership] selection process” and is hopeful COAC will meet “pretty soon.” “It’s pretty much done,” she said.

Once COAC returns, the group will begin work on its fourth area of focus under the 21CCF effort: ineffective and untimely enforcement (see 2109230031). Highsmith said she expects “a lot of energy around that topic.” She also said she’s heard some “frustration and stress that there's not more transparency now in the working phase” of the customs modernization effort, and said she will be as “open and transparent as possible” throughout the rollout.

“There's that sweet spot between saying ‘we're working on it, I don't have anything to show you,’ versus saying ‘it’s fully baked and we can't make any changes,’” Highsmith said. “We’re trying to find that sweet spot and get everyone involved.”

Highsmith also said CBP is in the fourth of seven “tranches” of updating its revenue collection system in ACE and expects to complete the process in spring 2024. The General Services Administration last year granted CBP $15 million to pay for the work to move revenue collection at the agency from a mainframe computer to a more modern approach (see 2007310044). “It has led to reduced risk of human error and processing, significantly increased our automation and it's given us more payment flexibility,” Highsmith said. “All those things are good news for all of us.”

She also said the agency’s Section 321 data pilot, which received a two-year extension earlier this year (see 2108270045), is running smoothly. CBP has received 206 million shipments through the pilot as of August. “We've seen a significant reduction in our CBP workload and an increase of same-day clearances,” Highsmith said. “So that's a big success.”