CBP posted a reminder that it will have the scheduled weekly outage to ACE Certification from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Aug. 21. ACE Certification is the testing environment used by trade software developers. If you are not developing or testing software, this outage does not apply to you, and ACE Production won't be impacted, CBP said.
The ACE Certification system was back up and operational by early afternoon Aug. 19, CBP said. It had been experiencing technical issues earlier that day, and was not available (see 13081914), CBP said.
CBP created new capabilities in ACE allowing brokers with ACE Secure Data Portal access to download a template to add, edit and delete multiple employee records in their ACE portal account, it said in a new CSMS message. The new "Broker Employee Data Upload Quick Reference Guide" was posted (here) to CBP.gov providing information on adding individual employee data records or using a template that may be saved to your computer and retrieved to make updates to employee data records simultaneously. Adding employee information in the ACE Portal will allow a broker to comply with the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 111, CBP said.
CBP posted the ACE Single Window Document Image System (DIS) Trade Scenarios document to CBP.gov. The document lists six scenarios for trade community members to better understand how DIS can be used in their business operations. A copy is available (here).
On Aug. 14, CBP published a final determination concluding that the U.S. was the country of origin for certain hard disk drives (HDDs) and self-encrypting drives (SEDs) by Seagate Technology. The three lines of Seagate’s HDDs are designed in the U.S. and assembled from components manufactured by Seagate outside the U.S. or obtained from Asian suppliers, CBP said. The fully assembled HDDs are then imported into the U.S., but cannot function as storage media in their imported condition, according to information submitted by Seagate. The imported HDDs are “unblocked and programmed with two types of firmware” in the U.S., which makes the HDD “a fully functional, generic storage device,” CBP said. CBP added that about 25 percent of generic HDDs are then reformatted with customer security requirements developed within the U.S., transforming the generic HDDs to SEDs.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Aug. 16, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at addcvd.cbp.gov. (CBP occasionally adds backdated messages without otherwise indicating which message was added. ITT will include a message date in parentheses in such cases.)
The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America plans a 1 p.m. Aug. 29 webinar on the provisions of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), which takes effect Oct. 1. The webinar will be presented by Mike Brown, executive vice president of Avalon Risk Management, and Kathy Schricker, regional vice president of Avalon Risk Management, it said. NCBFAA said the "complex" law will impact customs house brokers, OTIs, surface freight forwarders and motor carriers. The webinar will include changes to the bonding requirements for freight brokers and the impact on freight forwarders and motor carriers.
The ACE Certification system was experiencing technical issues the morning of Monday, Aug. 19, and was not available, CBP said. Technical investigation was continuing, and CBP said users would be informed by CSMS when the issue is resolved.
CBP agriculture specialists in Baltimore issued an Emergency Action Notification to a Manassas, Va., importer about seven boxes of chicken skeletons from China, CBP said Aug. 15. The CBP notification required that the seven boxes be re-exported or destroyed, due to concerns that the “uncertified skeletons may pose a potential threat” of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza to the U.S. poultry industry.
The Food And Drug Administration will delete some of the product codes for the Center for Veterinary Medicine Products, effective Sept. 30, according to a CSMS message (CSMS #13-000412) from CBP. The use of those codes after that date will result in a data transmission error, CBP said. The product codes to be deleted are: