NCBFAA outlines remaining ACE priorities

Among the actions called for by the brokers and forwarders group is for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to program the Automated Commercial Environment to allow for goods releases at the border.    In order to be efficient for the trade community, the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) needs “additional critical development,” including to allow releases of goods at the border, entry/entry summary programming, post-release data processing capabilities, as well as “adequate, clear and decipherable messaging from CBP to the trade,” according to the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA).
   In a white paper that circulated Tuesday outlining requests for forthcoming ACE development, the NCBFAA said ACE isn’t capable of consistently providing a stable release date for border clearances.
   “This date is vital, as almost all rights, deadlines, responsibilities, and filing requirements are dependent on the release date,” the NCBFAA said. “CBP must stabilize the release date coding within ACE to allow for predictability, the protection of filer rights, and the establishment of the filers’ statutory and regulatory obligations under the various filing timelines.”
   Further, despite repeated requests from the trade, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) hasn’t disseminated a complete list of ACE messages and their meaning, even as the ACE messaging system is “not self-explanatory in any way,” the NCBFAA said.
   The system is also duplicative, inconsistent, and prone to incorrect interpretation by CBP and stakeholders, the association said.
   “Several critical issues” exist regarding ACE’s entry summary function, including remote location filing, currency conversation calculations for duties and value, and a need for more automation of the invoice interface in the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) system, the NCBFAA wrote.
   Additionally, several challenges still surround ACE drawback simplification and automation, “ongoing and often uncommunicated” changes to the reconciliation function, and CBP’s removal of protest filings from ABI, the white paper says.
   “ACE is a work in progress, inching closer to completion but still in need of a substantial infusion of common sense policy, solid programming, additional budget allocation, and good government oversight to get us from nearly complete to a fully functional, complete, and stable system of record for the U.S. trade community,” the NCBFAA wrote.