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CBP’s 2012 West Coast Trade Symposium – CEEs and ACAS

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

US Customs’ 2012 West Coast Trade Symposium — the first ever held outside of Washington, DC — was a resounding success with hundreds of attendees from the trade as well as the federal government. They symposium’s theme, “Transforming Trade for a Stronger Economy,” was clearly evident in key topics of discussion — CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs) and the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS)/Simplified Entry pilot.

CEEs

The CEE concept was developed by CBP, with significant input from the trade, to expedite the import process for particular industries by consolidating industry/customs expertise into “one-stop shopping” administrative centers. See our January 12 blog post for a more detailed discussion
Pilots for Centers for Pharmaceuticals, Health & Chemicals (NY) and Electronics (Long Beach) have been quite successful
New centers to launch by end of FY2012: Automotive & Aerospace (Detroit) and Petroleum, Natural Gas & Minerals (Houston)

ACAS/Simplified Entry Pilots

ACAS allows CBP and TSA to receive advance security filing cargo data as a means to target air cargo shipments inbound to the US that may be high risk and require additional physical screening
ACAS enables express carriers, passenger air carriers, freight forwarders, and all-cargo air carriers to send receive advance security filing data and related action messages for all air cargo through CBP’s Automated Targeting System (ATS)
Providing cargo data electronically – and earlier – to CBP allows for faster clearance at ports while reducing risk
In pilot since November 2010 with carriers UPS, DHL, FedEx; next phase includes passenger carriers, freight forwarders
CBP decided to tie in Simplified Entry pilot because both pilot programs are focused on air transport, and both work to reducing the number of data elements that must be submitted for entry clearance
Customs has provided a helpful flow chart (page 9) that clearly displays how ACAS ties into the Simplified Entry process

Posted in ACAS, Customs & Border Protection, Events, News, Ports, Simplified Entry | Add Comment »

CBP issues updated bonded warehouse manual

Friday, February 10th, 2012

On February 6, US Customs published an updated version of its Bonded Warehouse Manual for Customs and Border Patrol Officers and Bonded Warehouse Proprietors.

The document, last updated in 1990, provides guidance to all interested parties with a stake in bonded warehouses. Unfortunately, Customs has not yet provided guidance on which provisions have changed in the manual, which is nearly 200 pages long.

The complete manual is available here.

Posted in Customs & Border Protection, News, Ports | Add Comment »

Port of Long Beach’s Middle Harbor “green” project expected to move forward

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

The Port of Long Beach has reached a tentative agreement with Orient Overseas Container Line to complete the port’s long-awaited Middle Harbor project. According to the Los Angeles Times, the nation’s second busiest port and OOCL, the world’s 12^th largest ocean shipping line, will spend a combined $1.7 billion on the 300 acre project, which “is expected to be one of the greenest and most advanced cargo terminals” in the US. When complete, the Middle Harbor terminal will have the capacity to handle 3 million cargo containers.

Middle Harbor “by itself would rank as the fourth busiest seaport in the nation.” It will “add on-dock rail to eliminate truck trips and allow ships to plug into the electrical grid, eliminating the need for them to idle their diesel engines.”

The deal also contemplates that OOCL will take a 40-year, $4.6 billion lease.

The full story, “$4.6 billion lease being finalized at Long Beach port,” is available here.

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CBP’s Centers of Excellence working well for CE, pharma importers

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Under the tenure of former Commissioner Alan Bersin, CBP strived to facilitate trade. In that regard, one of Customs’ significant accomplishments has been the launch of two Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEE), a collaborative effort between the agency and the trade.

As reported in American Shipper, the CEEs were created to expedite processing of imports in two different industries – consumer electronics in Los Angeles and pharmaceuticals in New York. To develop the program, CPB worked closely with a select group of importers in each industry (who were also enrolled in C-TPAT and ISA).

In the pilot program for pharmaceuticals which lead to the launch of the CEEs,

…small teams of [CBP] commodity specialists trained with leading pharmaceutical companies to learn how their supply chains operate and monitored the way CBP examines cargo from trusted shippers. The units identified which shippers are at risk for regulatory violations or government-caused shipping delays. CBP officials say they found many non-productive exams and document reviews being conducted, or cargo detained for clerical rather than substantive reasons. The experts then educated officers at ports how to make better decisions about whether to hold, examine or release consignments, thereby removing unnecessary holds for low-risk cargo.

Given the success of the pilot, the two CEEs officially launched in LA and NY. Required import documents for these two industries are now routed to the respective industry centers for validation, protest, PEAs/PSCs and more. Revenue collection will still occur in the ports of entry.

Although there are still issues related to legal, policy, personnel and process before the centers “achieve full operational processing capabilities,” CBP plans to roll out additional CEEs for the following industries: