shippers and forwarders are very concerned with the September 29, 2012 deadline and potential cargo delays.
Trade Tech, a global supplier of Cloud-based solutions for the logistics industry, successfully received certification for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP)Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) in April 2012 and its NVO, shipper and freight forwarder customers are now taking full advantage of the new AMS/ISF filing method.
At Customs Electronic Systems Action Committee’s (CESAC) recent meeting held in Washington DC, Customs confirmed the official cut-off date is September 29, 2012 when ACE will replace the old Automated Commercial System (ACS) and will be the only method for transmitting required automated manifest information for ocean and rail. Customs expects more participants to become ACE certified shortly, however, the queue is long so many providers may not receive their certification in time causing major cargo clearance delays for the shipping community.
One forwarder using the ACE solution is Laurie Arnold, Regulatory Compliance Officer with JAS Forwarding (USA), Inc. who says Trade Tech’s certification and successful implementation well in advance of the September deadline cut down on her “worry factor.”
“The current ACS will be turned off so if Trade Tech was not transmitting through ACE, we would not be able to do what we do. Our AMS filings would be shut down so this is extremely important to us and our customers,” says Arnold. “I have talked to a lot of other companies and many of them are struggling with their ACE compliance and I did not have to do a thing,” says Arnold. “The transition from the old ACS to ACE has been seamless for us and our customers and it is one thing I can check off my list. I have heard real horror stories from other freight consolidators and forwarders and I do not have the problems they are experiencing.”
On September 29, 2012 all rail and sea manifests, including ABI in-bonds, must be filed in ACE (Automated Commercial Environment). ACE will be the only approved EDI for transmitting required advance rail and sea cargo information and ABI in-bond transactions to CBP.
Trade Tech’s ACE solution allows its users to directly transmit and receive all AMS/ISF trade and security filings with U.S. Customs and Border Protection via a single platform. ACE is a backend system change for Customs which will bring visibility to different commercial environments, including truck, ocean and rail, and 48 participating government agencies.
Trade Tech’s ACE certified solution allows importers to submit required security information to CBP in a single, harmonized filing, using an X12 data set. This gives CBP a consolidated view of rail and sea shipment manifests and entry data, at either the bill-of-lading or container level to help identify shipments that may pose a risk. This information also enables the pre-arrival processing of legitimate cargo, which expedites Customs clearance for Trade Tech customers.
“The CBP has spent about 12 years and billions of dollars to get ACE up and running and we knew they were serious about the deadline,” says Bryn Heimbeck, Trade Tech’s CEO. “We wanted to be an early adopter to give our customers plenty of wiggle room for the transition and it went perfectly and ahead of schedule. We have talked to lots of NVOs and forwarders who say they are panicked because a majority of the industry’s software vendors and about 65% of carriers do not currently have a solution for ACE. This is going to cause major delays for the clearance of cargo which is a real problem.”
“Over the last few years we watched many software vendors take a ‘wait and see’ attitude hoping Custom’s would give them leeway or an extension and that is obviously not going to happen,” says Heimbeck. “Our ACE solution was developed so our customers did not need to do anything differently – they simply enter the exact same shipment data elements as they did before.”
ACE was created to provide a higher visibility between participating government agencies as to what cargo was coming into the USA and from whom. “This allows the different agencies to further collaborate with one another to make better, more efficient decisions about security, targeting cargo for exams etc. and for the release of containers to expedite the flow of cargo,” says Heimbeck. All Automated Manifest Systems (AMS) and Importer Security Filing (ISF) filings with Trade Tech are now submitted through the ACE portal.
For more information on ACE please visit the Customs and Border Patrol Ace Portal
