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

One of the organizations participating in this week’s events, the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), documents specifically how imports foster and sustain job growth in just the apparel and footwear industries alone:

• 98 percent of clothing and 99 percent of shoes sold in the US are produced overseas
• These imports directly supply nearly 4 million US jobs, such as industry executives, mill workers, sourcing managers, retail associates, and many more
• These imports also account for hundreds of thousands of US jobs in related fields, such transportation and dry cleaning
• The median salary of the entire industry supply chain is $70,000
• Factory, transportation jobs are well-paying, many in the $20-$25 per hour range

The AAFA blog post is available here.

The test is open to importers and brokers who are already ACE entry summary filers, who have received approval from their CBP client representatives prior to participation.

The first phase of DIS testing will be limited to submission of documents that are “in response to a request [by CBP or PGA] for entry summary documentation or in response to a request for release documentation for certified ACE entry summaries.”

The types of documents that may be submitted during this phase of testing include:

• Commercial invoices
• Packing lists
• Invoice working sheets
• TSCA import certification forms
• Specified EPA, APHIS and NOAA forms

One more point:  Any document submitted via DIS is deemed an electronic copy of an original document and subject to Customs’ recordkeeping requirements.

Additional information is available in the Federal Register announcement for DIS testing.

Specifically, all ACE report users can now share customized reports with any user of their account who has access to ACE reports.  The good news is that this eliminates the need for multiple users to create the same or similar reports — all can refer to one source document.

CBP has published guidance on creating and using shared reports, including screen shots and tips on managing shared reports.  The latter is especially important since any account user with access to ACE reports can post, modify or delete reports from the shared folder.  The guidance is available here.

1. Predictive Risk-based Evaluation for Dynamic Import Compliance Targeting (PREDICT) allows FDA to use risk-based algorithms when targeting import shipments for inspection of the documents and/or cargo.  It also automates the lookup function on their side to the various Centers’ databases to validate that Affirmation of Compliance numbers are valid which should speed up the review and approval process.
2. Import Trade Auxiliary Communications Systems (ITACS) allows importers or “anyone that knows the entry number” to submit their documents electronically to the FDA, check on the current status of their entry, and notify the FDA of the preferred exam site.  ITACS can be found here.
3. Mission Accomplishments and Regulatory Compliance Servers (MARCS) allows FDA to view documents and exam information sent to them via ITACS.

To learn more about these programs,  you can view the agency’s FAQs.

For those direct filing with the CustomsNow system, these changes do not require any updates to our application or the way in which you declare entries to FDA.  Rather, they are stand-alone applications which augment the ABI data feeds to and from the FDA.

We encourage you to contact the FDA offices with which you work to determine if they are operational on these systems so that you can take advantage of this enhanced process.

Customs emphasized that the July 2012 deployment timeframe is “very loose.”

CBP’s official notice is available here.

Mark your calendar for the event, which will be held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA, from June 3 through 5.  Keynote speakers include David V. Aguilar, Acting Commissioner, US Customs and Border Protection, and Howard Sklamberg, J.D., Acting Principal Deputy Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs for the US Food and Drug Administration.

Additional information, including registration and pricing, can be found here.

The purpose of the pilot is succinctly defined by CBP as follows:

Simplified Entry provides importers with the chance to file earlier in the process with a streamlined filing, which can be amended – a first-time feature for the Trade. Because the Simplified Entry can be filed earlier, this allows for an expanded window of opportunity to identify potential risks to CBP. The capability for filers to update information will result in more accurate data for CBP, thereby enhancing cargo security.

Simplified entries must be filed in ACE, signaling the importance that the agency is placing on the successor system to AMS.

Division Director Steve Hilsen of the Office of International Trade addressed Simplified Entry pilot participants and CBP at the Chicago Field Office.

In advance of pilot kickoff, CBP held meetings for the trade in the three pilot ports, and discussed the initial rollout for air cargo, the first mode of transportation to be tested.

Customs’ coverage of the meetings can be found here, and the slide deck provided to attendees is available here.

After a successful pilot program (known as M1),  US Customs has announced that ACE will be the only CBP-approved EDI for transmitting required advance information for ocean and rail cargo to CBP, effective September 29, 2012.

As of that date, AMS will no longer be available for this purpose.

Here’s some additional information on scope of the M1 pilot:

To date, 24 trade participants have completed the certification testing described in the M1 test notice and are transmitting their advance ocean and rail cargo information in ACE. Another 11 trade participants are currently involved in certification testing. The port of Baltimore, Maryland began utilizing ACE for processing ocean cargo on November 30, 2011. The ports of Buffalo, New York and Brownsville, Texas began using ACE for processing ocean and rail cargo on December 5, 2011. To date, 91 ports are using ACE for ocean and/or rail processing.

Clearly, the march to full utilization of ACE is well underway.

The official Federal Register notice of the transition to ACE for e-Manifests (sea and rail) is available here.

To that end, CBP has been touting ACE at every opportunity, as part of its mission to generate awareness and interest among the trade.  Customs has recently published a document, “Trade Benefits from the Automated Commercial Environment,” that does a fantastic job of setting out a summary of functionality currently deployed in ACE, as well as the benefits that accrue to various segments of the trade.

The functionality currently deployed includes:

• e-Manifest:  Truck
• e-Manifest: Rail and Sea
• Entry Summary Filings
• Post-Summary Correction filings
• ACE Secure Data Portal Accounts
• Periodic Monthly Statements
• ACE Reporting

The document then outlines the specific benefits, by functionality, that apply to the following trade segments:

• Trade Account Owners
• Brokers
• Carriers
• Importers
• Sureties

Interestingly, CBP also highlights benefits for Self-Filers; that is, those who self-file their customs entries. The benefits are numerous and significant, and are just another reason to direct file entries…in ACE.

The complete ACE benefits document is available here.