U.S. CUSTOMS SHELVES ACE PROTOTYPE SYSTEM

U.S. CUSTOMS SHELVES ACE PROTOTYPE SYSTEM    U.S. Customs announced that it will shutdown a prototype of its future system, the Automated Commercial Environment.
   The system, called the National Customs Automated Program or NCAP, offered industry a glimpse of how ACE would operate. The agency has been testing NCAP at the land-border ports of Laredo, Texas; Detroit and Port Huron, Mich., for about a year.
   NCAP allowed certain high-volume, low-risk shipments to essentially be pre-cleared through Customs before reaching the border. Five importers participated in the system: General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Robert Bosch and Delphi Automotive Systems.
   Customs decided to shelve the system after not receiving funding for ACE in fiscal 2000. The agency had asked Congress and the Clinton Administration for $15 million in supplemental funds to cover this year’s ACE initiatives, of which $3 million would have been used to keep NCAP alive. The agency has yet to receive the funds.
   “We’re now at a critical stage,” said Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly at a meeting of the Treasury Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the U.S. Customs Service on Friday. “We simply don’t have the money to go forward (with ACE).”
   It’s expected that Customs will replace its NCAP initiative with a another land-border systems initiative, the International Trade Data System. This system offers similar capability in cargo clearance as NCAP. However, ITDS provides data to multiple government agencies. The International Trade Data System has also received $5.4 million in funding for fiscal 2000. Former NCAP participants and Customs are expected to discuss this possible transition in systems at a meeting in March.
   “NCAP was a good start,” said Karl J. Reidl, director of international trade at Robert Bosch. “But something that can perform the same functions and has funding works better.”
   Customs will give the industry 30-days notice about the shutdown of NCAP in a Federal Register notice to be published this week.