CBP Vows Continuous Monitoring of ACE Transition Readiness After Delay Requests
CBP takes seriously the recent industry requests for revisions to the agency's timeline for requiring use of the Automatic Commercial Environment, an agency spokeswoman said. "CBP is aware of requests from the trade community to modify the approach to implementing mandatory filing of electronic entries and entry summaries in ACE on November 1, 2015," said the spokeswoman. "We are continually evaluating the readiness of all our stakeholders to ensure we implement ACE in a manner that makes sense and maintains momentum."
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There's growing concern that industry and CBP won't be ready for ACE by the Nov. 1 mandatory use date for electronic summary and cargo release filing (see 1507150063). "The feedback we have received from the Trade Support Network (TSN) Trade Leadership Council (TLC) and others in the trade community has been very valuable and is an important consideration in the ongoing assessments," said the spokeswoman. "We will continue working closely with our trade partners to ensure we can successfully meet our shared goal of operating in a single window environment."
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America recently added its voice among those concerned with the timeline. "The NCBFAA Automation Committee sent a letter, under my signature to Debbie Augustin, Acting Executive Director of ACE, agreeing with TLC’s letter on reevaluating the November 1 ACE mandatory filing," said NCBFAA President Geoffrey Powell (here). "The Automation Committee further volunteered to partner with CBP on developing a path forward that would yield the best results for not only CBP, but the trade in general."
Several NCBFAA members involved in ACE-related committees meet every two weeks to discuss the transition, he said. "We are not certain what CBP will do regarding TLC’s recommendation to lessen the requirement that all entries must be transmitted through ACE on November 1. ACE is coming and we cannot stress enough that our members need to continue to get on ACE, begin training and learning about functionality that will benefit their businesses."