WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2016

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CBP Expands ACE Portal Account Testing To Include ProtestsCBP will add “Protest Filer Account” testing to its ACE Portal pilot, the agency said in a notice (here).

“The owner of an ACE Protest Filer Account will have the ability to create and maintain through the ACE Portal information regarding the name, address, and contact information for the corporate and individual ac-count owner for the Protest Filer Account,” CBP said. “Protest filers will use the existing account structure es-tablished for other accounts within the ACE Portal.” CBP will later test electronic protest submissions through the ACE Protest Module from Protest Filer Accounts, CBP said. “Parties authorized to file a protest include importers or consignees for an entry, or their sureties; persons paying any charge or exaction; persons seeking entry or delivery; persons filing a claim for drawback; exporters or producers of the merchandise subject to a determination of origin under section 202 of the NAFTA Implementation Act, if the exporter or producer completed and signed a NAFTA Certificate of Origin covering the merchandise; or the authorized agent of any of these persons,” CBP said. “When a protest is filed by a person acting as an agent for the principal that agent must have a power of attorney that grants authority to the agent to make, sign and file a protest on behalf of

2—ACE WEEKLY NEWS BRIEF WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2016

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the protesting party.” CBP recently announced the end to electronic protests through the Automated Commer-cial System. Electronic filing will require use of ACE starting Aug. 27, CBP said last month.

(Federal Register 08/08/16)

NCBFAA Calls on CBP To Fix System Issues, Bring Back Functionalities Lost in ACS-ACE Transition

ACE filers continue to face downtime and slowdown issues worse than those encountered in the legacy Automated Commercial System, and several functionalities essential to the trade community are still unavailable, including some that were available in the legacy system before it was mostly shut down July 23, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a position paper (here). “Much remains to be done” before the implementation of ACE can be declared a success, with performance of some aspects of the new electronic filing regime still lagging behind that of the ACS, it said.

Recently published reports show ACE is only online 96% of the time, down from the 99% avail-ability of ACS, said the position paper, which the NCBFAA said was provided to CBP and the Customs Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC). That means ACE is down 60 hours per month. “Considering this is a 24/7/365 day environment, a 96% system availability rate would be unacceptable,” the NCBFAA said. That figure doesn’t include frequent system slowdowns that occur “several times each week,” it said. “Stabilizing system performance needs to be a top priority for CBP.”

“Loss of functionality from ACS to ACE is a step backwards, which the NCBFAA cannot support,” the NCBFAA said. ACE’s 8 megabyte transmission limit is also too low, and in some cases is “more re-strictive than the current ACS 999 line level limitation, as the PGA records represent a very large amount of required data per line,” the position paper said. “This is in direct contradiction to the 9,999 line level limita-tion communicated throughout the entire development process and it forces additional software and oper-ational changes. File size needs to be addressed and expanded to the original level of 9,999 lines in ACE,” the NCBFAA said. ACE also lacks several Automated Broker Interface (ABI) functionalities in its current form that were available in ACS, like ABI protest and the Automated Invoice Interface, the trade group said. CBP intends to deploy an ACE ABI protest module in late August, it has said.

Other functionalities have been “consistently communicated as essential in the ACE support from our industry,” and “should be developed and delivered in ABI immediately” regardless of whether CBP considers them to be “core” deployments, the NCBFAA said. These include automated informal entry processes, such as Section 321 in ABI, submission of CBP Form 3311 (American goods returned) in ABI, export manifest, true monthly payment via the statement, and house-bill release. Accompanying the letter is a list of ACE functionalities deemed essential by the NCBFAA (here), including improvements to “sporad-ic” and “confusing messaging” and One USG messages “not functioning as intended as [an] indicator that all governing agencies have concluded their interest in holding the cargo.”

The NCBFAA called on CBP and partner government agencies (PGAs) to provide the trade commu-nity with adequate notice of data elements they will require in ACE, including the rationale for those data elements, as well as adequate opportunity for comment and testing. CBP and the PGAs should also publish “instruction manuals, “How To” guides, directions and the like,” the trade group said. “It is essential that

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CBP and the PGAs release written guidance for each ACE/ITDS function contemporaneously with released functionality and before mandated use. This allows users to understand, adopt and train for new functional-ity and provides a tool for problem-solving and support decisions,” it said. — Brian Feito

Miscellaneous CBP Releases (August 4, 2016)CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

• CBP Meets with Phoenix Business Community (here)• User Fee Transponder Instructions (here)• Updated CATAIR Appendix PGA (here)• Quota Entry Summary Filing (here)• Update on License, Permit, and Certification Issues on ACE Entries (here)• ACE Processing Delays for FDA ACE Entries, Aug. 3 (here).

Miscellaneous CBP Releases (August 3, 2016)CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

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• ACE CATAIR Documentation Posted to CBP.gov (here)• Doubling of Piece Count Quantity—Fix Implemented in ACE (here)• Warehouse Entry Summary Validations Relaxed in ACE (here)• RESOLVED: PRODUCTION AES DIRECT logon issues Aug. 2 (here).

NMFS Creates New Consolidated Seafood Permit for Filing in ACEThe National Marine Fisheries Service issued a final rule (here) that will consolidate existing im-

port, export and re-export permits for filing in CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment. Under the new regulations, currently separate permits and documentation for the Antarctic Marine Living Resources (AMLR) and the Highly Migratory Species International Trade Permit (HMS ITP) programs must be filed in ACE under a single International Fisheries Trade Permit (IFTP), via both data elements and scanned images. Non-resident importers will have to go through a registered agent residing in the U.S. to obtain an IFTP. NMFS is also finalizing new permit requirements for seafood products regulated under the Tuna Tracking and Verification Program (TTVP), also under the consolidated IFTP procedures. The final rule takes effect Sept. 20.

Affected seafood products include specified commodities of tuna, swordfish, billfish and shark fins under the HMS ITP program; Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish and other fishery products caught in the waters surrounding Antarctica under the AMLR program; and frozen and/or processed tuna products, as well as certain other fishery products, under TTVP. In its Dec. 29 proposed rule, NMFS hinted that ACE fil-ing of the International Fisheries Trade Permit could be expanded in the future, with the proposal providing that the new permit and ACE requirements “may be incorporated by reference in other regulations pertain-ing to documentation and reporting of imports and/or exports.”

An IFTP will be required for all imports and exports of covered commodities, regardless of value, including for import shipments below $800 and export shipments below $2,500. Filing in ACE or the Auto-mated Export System will also be required for these otherwise “de minimis” shipments, NMFS said.

To obtain the IFTP, U.S. importers, exporters and re-exporters of seafood products covered under the TTVP, AMLR and HMS ITP programs, and registered agents of non-resident importers, must electron-ically submit their applications and fees for the IFTP via a website designated by NMFS, the agency said. Specific information and documentation required by each of the three programs must be submitted via ACE in the form of data elements and scanned images of documentation, it said. Importers and exporters will have to maintain electronic or paper records at their places of business for two years after the transaction, NMFS said. Biweekly dealer reports and other documents not required for admissibility decisions would not be affected by the final rule, and would still have to be submitted to NMFS on paper.

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Though the final rule subjects TTVP-regulated seafood, including frozen and processed tuna, to new permit requirements, it also allows for a reduced data set to be filed in ACE under certain circumstances. The reduced data set will be allowed for imports of frozen cooked tuna loins used in cannery operations and tuna products in airtight containers manufactured in American Samoa and imported into the U.S. or Puerto Rico that originated from the tuna receipts listed on those monthly reports, NMFS said.

Despite calls from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America to require submission of permit data elements at the time of entry summary, NMFS said requiring submission of data at the time of entry is “necessary to ensure only admissible products are permitted entry into the U.S. market,” refusing to make the change. “Allowing data entry for these three programs after product has been admitted into the United States would make efforts to interdict problematic entries extremely difficult,” it said. NMFS also resisted the trade group’s calls to make the party with a financial interest in the shipment, not simply the CBP importer of record, responsible for getting the permit. “NMFS believes it is important for enforcement purposes that the importer of record, regardless of whether said importer has a direct fi-nancial interest in the imported goods, be the responsible party accountable in the event of a shipment entry problem,” the agency said.

(Federal Register 08/03/16)

CBP Clarifies Notice on ACE Protest ModuleThe coming ACE protest module mentioned in a recent Federal Register notice will only be avail-

able through the ACE portal, CBP said in a CSMS message (here). Another Federal Register notice is coming that will detail how to create an ACE portal protest account, CBP said.

Miscellaneous CBP Releases (August 2, 2016)CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

• Doubling of Piece Count Against Ocean Bills (here)• ACE PRODUCTION Maintenance Aug. 2 (here)• New Date and Time (Aug. 16, 12:30 p.m. Eastern) for Protest Filing in ACE Business

Webinar (here).