ACE monthly payments top $500 million

ACE monthly payments top $500 million    U.S. importers and their brokers paid a record $510.6 million in customs duties and fees in April through a new automated, monthly payment process, Customs and Border Protection said.
   Last year CBP opened up the periodic payment feature in the Automated Commercial Environment, the agency’s new computerized import filing and processing system, to all importers. The system streamlines the import compliance process by allowing traders to set up an account and pay their duties on a monthly rather than per transaction basis.
   CBP said April’s ACE receipts represent 25 percent of all duties and fees collected by the agency. CBP has collected more than $4 billion through ACE since the program started in July 2004, when traders made $84,000 in payments. By August 2005, ACE payments had reached $232 million.
   Customs officials have said that the agency will eventually move to require all traders pay their duties and fees through ACE.