WASHINGTON, D.C. - In preparation of the upcoming Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) deployment set to release February 24, the NCBFAA has published a white paper laying out the multiple critical developments U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will need to address for ACE to be a fully functional, complete and stable system of record for the U.S. trade community.
The NCBFAA, whose members process more than 97 percent of the entries filed for goods entering U.S. commerce, has been at the forefront of industry efforts to support CBP in delivering a system that meets the needs of U.S. trade. For close to 20 years, the NCBFAA and the trade has worked in conjunction with CBP on the development and implementation of ACE. In this white paper, which is intended to be a high-level overview of the more in-depth ACE priority list found here, the NCBFAA highlights the much-needed critical developments CBP will need to fund and schedule for ACE to be entirely complete. These developments are focused into four specific areas:
- Development needed to obtain a release of the goods at the border
- Programming needed to support the entry or entry summary
- Processing needs for the entries' "post-release" (that is, provision of data required after goods are permitted to enter the geographic U.S.)
- Clear and decipherable messaging from CBP to the trade
The NCBFAA believes this paper offers CBP a good starting point on how and where to focus their efforts. And while the NCBFAA understands that ACE is a work in progress, and that CBP has made great strides in its development of the last few years, it is still in need of a substantial infusion of common sense policy, solid programming, additional budget allocation, and good government oversight to achieve a complete system of record that encompasses all aspects of entry filing for the U.S. trade community.
