U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its 2011 Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) accomplishments fact sheet listing a total of 37 accomplishments from January to September 2011. Most recently, in September 2011, CBP deployed ACE functionality for monitoring the liquidation of entries and made progress on the Document Image System (DIS):

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message reminding the trade that it will cease emailing Importer Security Filing (ISF) Progress Reports after the December 2011 reports. The reports will be available to recipients through the ACE Secure Data Portal. Those who do not have a free ACE Portal account can access the online ACE Portal Application here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other officials have discussed the agency's plans to automate the export process at the October 4, 2011 COAC¹ meeting and the September and October Trade Support Network (TSN) monthly committee meetings. During the events, officials stated that in order to bring export filing into ACE, CBP has been working with Participating Government Agencies and the trade community to develop user requirements for an automated export manifest in each transport mode. CBP is also working on an interim export manifest as a paperless solution for the ocean mode.

Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for November 14-18, 2011 in case they were missed last week.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.

The Trade Support Network has issued its October 2011 Monthly Committee Report, which indicates that discussions are taking place on issues related to the automation of the export manifest in ACE, as well as using ACE Post Summary Correction (PSC) for drawback. The October report also notes that the implementation plan for ACE e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail (MI) has run into issues that must be resolved prior to opening the program for enrollment.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (COAC) will meet on December 7, 2011 in Washington, D.C. There will be comment opportunities before and during the meeting, and the registration deadline to attend or listen to the webcast is December 5.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its monthly Automated Commercial Environment Updates for November 2011. While the update lists new statistics showing that the number of ACE trade user accounts and the size of revenue collections via Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS) continue to grow, it also indicates that a number of due dates for ACE functionality have been pushed back to later dates or are no longer specified.

The Account Management Committee of the Trade Support Network (TSN) has submitted a Great Idea Form that asks U.S. Customs and Border Protection to allow importers to file Post Summary Corrections through the ACE Portal. This enhancement would restore to importers that are not self-filers the ability to file their own corrections for ACE entry summaries, a benefit which was taken away when PEAs were disallowed for ACE summaries. This enhancement could also replace the current paper process of receiving and processing PEAs for non-ACE entry summaries.