U.S. Customs postpones deployment of ACE functions

In a surprise announcement, Customs and Border Protection has delayed implementing several post-release functions in its Automated Commercial Environment in order to resolve outstanding technical issues.    U.S. Customs and Border Protection made a surprise announcement Wednesday that it was indefinitely postponing deployment of several post-release capabilities in the Automated Commercial Environment associated with entry filing, such as drawback, reconciliation, duty deferral, collections, statements and the Automated Surety Interface.
   Those functions were scheduled for mandatory use in ACE on Jan. 12, after being postponed last fall. 
   ACE is the agency’s enterprise system for monitoring and processing international shipments and communicating with importers and exporters, as well as other government agencies with clearance authority over goods.
   Most trade functions have been transitioned from CBP’s legacy system to ACE. 
   The decision setting the Jan. 12 deadline for filers to submit drawback and other post-release documents in ACE was made to give all stakeholders more time to prepare their software for the transition.
   Wednesday’s postponement raises concerns that CBP and industry are still experiencing problems with readiness. Although CBP had not indicated it was considering a delay, industry representatives had communicated with officials that they needed more time for testing and development of their software that communicates with ACE.
   An executive order from President Obama requires all agencies with oversight of trade issues to conduct business in the International Trade Data System (ITDS), a single channel for routing documentation to agencies without redundant filing, by the end of the year. The ITDS platform is ACE.