Next ACE Deployment Set for April 5, Will Include Cargo Release and Export Changes

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is planning to implement on April 5 additional capabilities within the Automated Commercial Environment in the areas of exports, cargo release and entry summary. So-called Deployment C is the third of seven deployments comprising the plan to deliver core trade processing capabilities in ACE by the end of 2016.

Cargo Release. The ACE cargo release pilot will be expanded to accept, process and release all ocean and rail shipments and 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 allow trade participants 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.

Entry Summary. ACE will include additional entry summary validations for Merchandise Processing Fee and complex duty calculations; i.e., those entry summary lines with two Harmonized Tariff Schedule classifications.

AES. Deployment C will migrate the re-engineered Automated Export System commodity filing process from the current AES legacy system into the ACE platform. For CBP users, the legacy AES will be decommissioned on March 22. 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.

Advance Export Information. A pilot program to determine the utility of the Advance Export Information filing option will be incorporated, although this option will not be available in production until Census and CBP select the pilot participants. AEI will allow 10-12 data elements to be filed pre-departure, with the remaining data elements to be filed five days after export. This option will not impact existing option 4 filers.

Regulatory Changes. Regulatory changes for the Census Bureau will be incorporated: post-departure filing time will be changed from ten calendar days from the date of exportation to five; data fields will be added for ultimate consignee type and license value; and the foreign-trade zone identifier will be increased from five to seven alpha-numeric characters.

Regulatory changes for the Bureau of Industry and Security will be incorporated as well: a placeholder will be provided for the potential expansion of the Export Control Classification Number in support of potential future regulatory changes, and better validations and edits will be provided on license data to enhance the processing of filings and notifications.