ACAS Strategic Plan for Air Cargo to Be Posted by CBP Soon
On March 20, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Deputy Commissioner Thomas Winkowski discussed the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) strategy with air cargo leaders at the annual 2012 AirCargo trade show and conference1. Winkowski handed out hard copies of the ACAS Strategic Plan, which sources state CBP plans to post on CBP.gov this week. While Winkowski stated that ACAS procedures will eventually become mandatory, he expects that the bulk of air cargo will move under ACAS compliance before the regulations are instated due excellent cooperation from companies.
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(During the February 21, 2012 COAC meeting, CBP officials provided an update on CBP and TSA's efforts to expand the ACAS pilot beyond the express carrier industry to passenger airlines, forwarders, and others. Officials had stated that the ACAS Strategic Plan would be posted soon and that the pilot would eventually lead to regulatory changes. See ITT's Online Archives 12030524 for summary.)
Background on ACAS Initiative
ACAS is a pre-departure targeting initiative in pilot phase that began in October 2010 when an attempt by Al-Qaida in Yemen to ship explosive devices in an express carrier shipment bound for the U.S. was disrupted by the global counterterrorism community. ACAS involves the collection of advance shipment data at the House airway bill level much earlier in the supply chain process, for joint U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Transportation Security Administration (CBP/TSA) analysis by the Automated Targeting System (ATS) using certain rule and weight sets.
1The annual AirCargo trade show and conference was co-hosted by the Air and Expedited Motor Carriers Association (AEMCA), the Airforwarders Association (AfA), and the Express Delivery & Logistics Association (XLA).