The Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) is the commercial trade processing system that provides a single, centralized way to connect U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the international trade community, and Partner Government Agencies (PGA). While CBP continues to enhance ACE and ensure it is a secure and reliable system, we are also looking further ahead to procure the technology needed to implement next generation business processes. We are calling this effort ACE 2.0.
ACE 2.0 will build on the vision of the Re-Imagined Entry Working Group, a collaboration with the trade through the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC). This effort is enabled by the legislative framework of the 21st Century Customs Framework (21CCF).
ACE 2.0 will allow CBP and PGAs to receive better quality data much earlier in the supply chain, often in near-real time from both traditional and non-traditional actors.This will vastly increase supply chain visibility as products make their way to the border of the United States, facilitating faster government responses with earlier determinations on cargo.
The modernization achieved with ACE 2.0 will secure our ability to better identify high-risk imports, increase supply chain transparency, verify compliance, and ensure appropriate revenue collection. ACE 2.0 is envisioned to lead the world in the international exchange of trade data.
To lay the groundwork for ACE 2.0, CBP is promoting international standards for global interoperability. Interoperability will allow differing systems and technologies to communicate with CBP, offering businesses flexibility and technology choice, while enabling CBP to exchange data with a much wider variety of trade entities in near real-time. So far, CBP’s investment into interoperability has demonstrated exciting results, including the ability to expedite cargo processing, support enhanced enforcement activity, and future-proof the trade process through choice of technology. Testing is scheduled to continue through 2025. Under current projections, CBP aims to start ACE 2.0 development in 2026.