International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Jan 19-22 in case they were missed.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

While the Automated Commercial Environment will at some point become the source of importer transaction information, importers should continue to rely on Importer Trade Activity (ITRAC) data for the time being, said Thomas Jesukiewicz, acting executive director of CBP's Regulatory Audit group during an event hosted by the American Conference Institute on Jan. 22. Eventually, through ACE "you'll be able to download your own data to be able to see" importer transaction history, he said.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow full filing of Lacey Act declarations through the Automated Commercial Environment “effective immediately,” it said on Jan. 22 (here). “APHIS and CBP are confident that the system is now ready for full Lacey Act integration based on the sustained success of LAP’s pilot project, which has experienced no data or system errors,” said APHIS. “APHIS has determined that its information technology (IT) infrastructure is sufficiently robust to handle the expected user activity, and the Agency will continue to expand its IT capabilities through an upgrade this summer.” Filers may continue to use the Automated Commercial System to submit Lacey Act declarations until Feb. 28, said APHIS. “We encourage all filers to use this time to test their filing systems in ACE for Lacey Act declarations.”

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

The Commerce Department and CBP aim to complete its transition of the Census Bureau’s AESDirect and AESPcLink into the Automated Commercial Environment by the end of the summer, Gerard Horner, director of the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Technology Evaluation, said on Jan. 20 during the first of two days of meetings of Commerce's Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness in Washington. Data will no longer be collected via separate systems. “Everything will go through the government's single window system ACE,” Horner said. “Census is currently transitioning the 50,000-plus companies who currently use AESDirect and AESPcLink to ACE."

CBP is working on contingency plans for any disruptions that arise on its Feb. 28 mandatory use date for the Automated Commercial Environment, said Maria Luisa Boyce on Jan. 20 at a meeting of the Commerce Department’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness. The agency has set up a call with the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations on Jan. 21 so the COAC can provide guidance on plans for several areas, she said. COAC stressed the importance of contingency plans for the ACE deadline at a meeting held earlier this month (see 1601140031).

Participation in the Food and Drug Administration’s Automated Commercial Environment pilot continues to build, according to statistics given by FDA officials. Over 8,000 entries have been filed since the pilot began Aug. 19, up from 1,000 one month ago and 200 in early November (see 1511040067), representing 20,000 entry lines. Over 200 filers are now participating. FDA recently relaxed its requirements for filing in pilot, eliminating the need to prevalidate shipment data before sending it through ACE (see 1512110027). Sandy Abbott and Jessica Aranda, both of FDA’s Division of Compliance Systems, gave the update during a Jan. 19 webinar on the data elements required for filing entries of food in ACE.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

CBP will "retire a significant number of infrequently used" Automated Commercial Environment reports, the agency said (here). CBP will remove the listed report categories (here) on Feb. 15 "as part of its effort to clean up ACE Reports and improve system usability," said CBP. Users can "maintain access to any of the reports scheduled for retirement ... by saving a copy of the report to either a 'Shared' or 'My Favorites' folders for future use," said CBP.