ACE Deployment C Information Notice

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is deploying additional capabilities in April as part of ACE Deployment C.  Capabilities are focused on Exports, Cargo Release and Entry Summary.

Deployment C is the third of seven deployments comprising the plan to deliver core trade processing capabilities in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and decommission the corresponding capabilities in legacy systems by the end of 2016.  To meet this timeline, the following dates have been established by which the trade community must file in ACE:

• May 1, 2015: Mandatory use of ACE for all electronic manifest filing - Filing of all electronic import and export cargo manifest data related to all modes of transportation will be mandatory in ACE.

• November 1, 2015: Mandatory use of ACE for all electronic cargo release and related entry summary filings - Filing of all data associated with the release of imported cargo from the government’s custody, including data related to PGA interactions, and the associated entry summaries will be mandatory in ACE. Filers submitting ACE Cargo Release Entries will need to file the corresponding Entry Summaries in ACE. (Both ACE Cargo Release Entries and Entry Summaries are filed via ABI and not via the ACE Portal.)
• October 1, 2016: Mandatory use of ACE for all remaining electronic portions of the CBP cargo process - All electronic trade processing will be mandatory in ACE. This includes     processes such as Drawback and Protest.

A complete listing of current and future deployed ACE capabilities, including the above mentioned mandatory dates, is available in the ACE Development and Deployment Schedule posted to CBP.gov/ACE.

Capabilities being deployed on April 5th, 2014:

ACE Cargo Release (also known as Simplified Entry (SE))

• The ACE Cargo Release pilot is being expanded to accept, process and release (a) all ocean and rail shipments and (b) basic truck shipments.  Only those truck shipments that do not include in-bond movements or partial quantities will be eligible to be filed as ACE cargo release entries in this deployment.
• The pilot will also be expanded to include entries certified from summary.  Trade participants will have the ability to request cargo release certification from their ACE Entry Summary record in ACE for air, ocean and rail shipments.  (Certification from entry summary for truck shipments will be available in the next ACE deployment.)
• The Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) documents will be updated and posted to CBP.gov by the week of March 10, 2014.

Entry Summary

• ACE will include additional entry summary validations for Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) and complex duty calculations, i.e., those entry summary lines with two Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) classifications.
• The CATAIR documents have been updated to incorporate these validations and posted to CBP.gov/ACE.

Exports

• Automated Export System (AES) Re-engineering in ACE
  • This deployment migrates the re-engineered Automated Export System (AES) commodity filing process from the current AES legacy system into the ACE platform.
  • The existing AES post-departure filing option (Option 4) will be available in the new ACE/AES platform for all existing and approved Option 4 filers.
• Census Regulatory Changes
  • Regulatory changes for the Census Bureau will be incorporated.
  • Post-departure filing time will be changed from ten to five calendar days from the date of exportation.
  • Data fields will be added for Ultimate Consignee Type and License Value.
  • The Foreign Trade Zone Identifier will be increased from five to seven alpha-numeric characters.
• Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) regulatory changes
  • Regulatory changes for the Bureau of Industry and Security will be incorporated.
  • A placeholder will be provided for the potential expansion of the Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) in support of potential future regulatory changes.
  • Better validations and edits will be provided on license data to enhance processing of filings and notifications.
• Advance Export Information (AEI)
  • A pilot program, run by Census Bureau and the CBP Office of Field Operations, to determine the utility of the Advance Export Information (AEI) filing option, will be incorporated. The AEI filing option will not be available in production until Census and CBP select the trade pilot participants.
  • AEI will allow for a filing option to include 10-12 pre-departure data elements, with the remaining data elements to be filed 5 days after export and will not impact existing option 4 filers.
• The Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR) has been updated to reflect the above changes and is posted to CBP.gov/ACE.