Tuesday, May 27, 2008

ACE Status Report to Congress, 2nd Quarter 2008

(CBP)

On February 14, 2008, CBP completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR): Initial Entry Summary Types (A2.2), indicating design work is complete for A2.2 capabilities that will enable entry summary processing in ACE for the most common entry types.

Beginning February 11, 2008, truck carriers were required to file Electronic Manifests (e-Manifests) at all land border ports in Alaska, marking the implementation of mandatory e-Manifest filing at all 99 U.S. land border ports of entry (POEs).

The number of ITDS Participating Government Agencies (PGAs) has expanded from 40 to 42 with the inclusion of the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

CBP successfully provided a demonstration of User Defined Rules (UDR), Impact Assessment (IA), and Advanced Targeting (S3) reporting functionality to the Office of International Trade (OT) National Targeting and Analysis Groups (NTAG) through an online collaborative meeting tool to reach CBP International Trade Specialists in Long Beach, California; Chicago, Illinois; South Florida; New York, New York; Dallas, Texas; and Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2008. In addition, CBP successfully provided a real-time demonstration of the Targeting Framework (TF) to the Advanced Targeting Unit (ATU) at the San Ysidro POE, California, on February 7, 2008.

These demonstrations allowed CBP officers and CBP International Trade Specialists a real-time view of mission-critical capabilities, which will allow them to conduct better screening and targeting.

CBP is focused on developing ACE entry summary processing capabilities that will streamline business processes and ACE capabilities that will ultimately allow CBP to consolidate multiple systems and use only one system to process cargo across all modes of transportation. Notwithstanding the challenges and complexities associated with developing new ACE capabilities that will process 52,000 rail and sea bills of lading each day, CBP is working diligently to prepare for the planned Fall 2008 deployment of M1.

Recognizing that industry input is critical to the success of ACE, CBP continues to ensure that the trade community is not only aware of forthcoming ACE capabilities but is also providing input into ACE development plans. Through its partnership with the trade community, CBP will continue to develop new ACE capabilities and enhance those already deployed to facilitate legitimate trade and ensure the safety and security of America’s supply chain.

Complete report available here (PDF format).