(Sandler and Travis)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a general notice announcing that, effective immediately, applicants seeking to establish importer or broker accounts so as to access the Automated Commercial
Environment (ACE) Secure Data Portal or to participate in any ACE test are no longer required to provide a statement certifying participation in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT).
(Participation in C-TPAT has never been a requirement to establish an ACE carrier account.) This change is being made in order to encourage maximum participation in ACE and make benefits such as periodic monthly payment
widely available. CBP stresses that this change in no way indicates that its support for C-TPAT has diminished. In its January 2005 modernization newsletter, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
announced that it would resume its test of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) for commercial truck processing in Blaine, WA, on January 31. Under this test, participating Truck Carrier Accounts will be able to
transmit electronic manifest data, including advance cargo information as required under the advance manifest rules (AMR), in ACE. Specifically, participants will have the ability to electronically transmit the truck
manifest data and obtain release of their cargo, crew, conveyances, and equipment via the ACE Portal or electronic data interchange (EDI) messaging.
This pilot test was initiated last fall but was suspended after
a few weeks because of certain problems. CBP officials speaking at the Customs Symposium in Washington last month said that these problems included difficulties with the user interface software and a lack of certified
participants. "Some fine-tuning needed to be performed," the newsletter quoted CBP Modernization Office Executive Director Louis Samenfink as saying. "We decided it was better to temporarily take the
system off-line to make those adjustments."
Officials have indicated that if the re-launched pilot program works well in Blaine, CBP plans to expand it to the ports of Otay Mesa, Laredo, Detroit, Port Huron,
Buffalo, and Champlain, although they did not specify a timeline for such action. CBP has previously said that the test will eventually be expanded to all land border ports.
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