Customs Establishes New Transition Timeline for Mandatory Transition
to ACE for Electronic Entry Release and Summary Filing

September 4, 2015

In a message to the trade community (CSMS #15-000644, dated August 31, 2015) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the establishment of a transition period for the migration from the Automated Commercial System (ACS) to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), noting concerns about stakeholder readiness.

ACE is a new electronic data system for filing data necessary to obtain the release of goods and for the filing of entry summary information with CBP and participating government agencies (PGA). Under ACE, paper documentation will be phased out and ultimately eliminated by December 2016.

Under the new transition period November 1, 2015 will mark the start of the period for electronic entry and entry summary filings in ACE, which will allow industry and participating government agencies additional time to test and provide feedback on the PGA data message sets. Use of ACE is allowed and encouraged for electronic entry and corresponding entry summary filings for entry types 01, 03, 11, 51, and 52 with or without PGA data.

On February 28, 2016, filers will only be permitted to file entries and entry summaries in ACE, and will no longer be permitted to file in ACS. In addition, electronic FDA, NHTSA, and APHIS (Lacey) data will have to be filed via ACE.

As of July 2016, ACE must be used for filing AMS, APHIS Core, ATF, CDC, DCMA, DDTC, DEA E&C, EPA, FSIS, FWS, NMFS and TTB data. Hybrid submissions will no longer be allowed. (The requirement for FWS is contingent on FWS having its regulatory revisions in place by the July 2016 publication of the CBP Final Rule eliminating hybrid filings.) 

CBP is currently conducting pilots with thirteen PGAs that regulate the admissibility of cargo and collect trade data at time of entry or entry summary filing. The participating PGAs include:

• Agriculture Marketing Service
• Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Lacey Act)
• Food Safety and Inspection Service
• National Marine Fisheries Service
• Enforcement & Compliance
• Defense Contracts Management Agency
• Food and Drug Administration
• Centers for Disease Control
• Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives
• Directorate of Defense Trade Controls
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
• Environmental Protection Agency

CBP is conducting pilots with the PGAs and the trade community to ensure the successful processing of electronic PGA data transactions in ACE, using the PGA Message Set and Document Image System (DIS). The PGA pilots will facilitate full implementation of the Single Window initiative. Understanding PGA message sets will be critical to trouble-free filing of entries with PGA requirements in ACE. For imports of goods with PGA requirements, importers and brokers should be reviewing these requirements together as soon as possible, as the data requirements are long and technical. For example, there are 53 discrete data message elements for APHIS’ Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) program that will need to be transmitted for qualifying line items. 

Importers will need to provide the data sets to brokers prior to importation, and brokers will need to have a system to maintain the information and report it accurately to CBP at the time of entry. CBP is seeking additional test filers to participate in the PGA Pilots to maximize success and ensure readiness and compliance prior to the upcoming ACE Mandatory Use Dates.

If you would like to know more about the implementation of ACE and the single window for compliance with PGA import requirements, consider joining our webinar on September 24, 2015 with CBP’s ACE Business Office Representative, Carlos Rodriquez. Additional details on the webinar and registration are available on our website.

Please contact George R. Tuttle, III (george.tuttle.iii@tuttlelaw.com) at (415) 986-8780 if you have questions or would like additional information on this or other Customs matters. 

George R. Tuttle, III, is an attorney with the Law Offices of George R. Tuttle in San Francisco.

The information in this article is general in nature, and is not intended to constitute legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship with respect to any event or occurrence, and may not be considered as such.

Copyright © 2015 by Tuttle Law Offices. 

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