ACE Updates Will Give More Government Agencies Ability to Place "Holds" on Shipments

Issue 59, October 23, 2008

In future ACE (Automated Commercial Environment) releases, certain participating government agencies will be given authority to place holds on inbound rail and sea shipments. Currently only Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) have this ability.

When U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) implements ACE M1 (e-Manifest: Rail and Sea for advance cargo information purposes,) in April-June 2009, the participating agencies can do some or all of the following:

• place holds directly on Bills of Lading (BOLs), containers and/or conveyances
• request that CBP place a hold on a BOL or container
• refer BOL information to other participating government agencies
• access manifest data

These agencies are potentially eligible to place or request shipment holds in ACE:

1. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
2. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
4. Consumer Product Safety Commission
5. Drug Enforcement Administration
6. Environmental Protection Agency
7. Food and Drug Administration
8. Food Safety and Inspection Service
9. Fish and Wildlife Service
10. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
11. National Marine Fisheries Service
12. Bureau of Ocean and International Scientific Affairs
13. Office of Foreign Missions
14. U.S. Coast Guard

The above agencies and those below, can also refer BOL information to other agencies:

1. Agricultural Marketing Service
2. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
3. Federal Communications Commission
4. Federal Maritime Commission
5. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
6. Maritime Administration
7. Office of Foreign Assets Control
8. Army Corps of Engineers

According to CBP, participating government agencies will have the following new functions in future ACE releases:

• increased access to entry summary and finance related data including: entry summary details; duties, taxes, and fees; prior disclosure and post summary corrections;
• improved override code processing for the trade to proactively set Census override codes;
• enable collaboration between Import Administration users and CBP for maintaining antidumping/countervailing duty cases;
• use of PGA licenses, permits, certificates for cargo release process;
• access to vessel entrance and clearance data; and
• access to correlated entry and manifest data.

Nearly 500 users from 27 participating federal agencies currently have access to the ACE Portal. Some agencies are now able to almost immediately get detailed information about any importation reported through an electronic filing. They can access it because most information currently required by CBP from importers, “entry summary data,” is transferred daily from CBP’s current processing system to the ACE “Data Warehouse,” which ITDS agencies can access through the ACE Portal.

CBP adds that the recently deployed ad-hoc reporting capability is expected to provide participating agencies with more robust reporting. CBP also points out that to qualify the participating agency must sign an agreement, like a memo of understanding, with CBP.

The full CBP presentation on participating Agencies being integrated into ITDS (dated 09/11/08) is available at:

http://www.itds.gov/linkhandler/itds/tsn/pga_documentation/pga_status.ctt/pga_status.ppt

Sincerely,
Paul E. Vroman
Manager, Regulatory & Compliance Consulting and Projects
Licensed Customs Broker
NCBFAA Certified Customs Specialist