CBP Needs to Announce PGA ACE Deadlines 'ASAP,' Says COAC
CBP should announce mandatory ACE filing dates “as soon as possible” for any agencies or entry types for which mandatory filing dates have not yet been announced, said the Commercial Customs Advisory Committee (COAC) in a recommendation formally adopted at a meeting held April 27. Some importers surveyed say their brokers are waiting for the announcement of the deadlines, particularly for Food and Drug Administration data, before they start filing in ACE, while brokers need to know when agency data will be required so they can adequately plan their development and training efforts, said COAC members during the meeting.
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Notwithstanding a surge in ACE readiness in other areas, with cargo release submission rates now over 75 percent, some 50 percent of importers do not feel ready for their FDA entries to go through ACE, according to an informal survey conducted by COAC member Susie Hoeger of Abbott Laboratories. Another 25 percent each said they are either ready or may be ready depending on the date FDA is required, she said. That’s much better than the numbers Hoeger recorded in a similar survey conducted in advance of COAC’s February meeting, when all surveyed said the Feb. 28 transition CBP had scheduled at the time would not be seamless (see 1601140031), but the importers in the more recent survey had a list of issues that still need to be worked out.
Some of the importers said their brokers are still only testing FDA entries in ACE. That’s partly due to ACE system issues that require the broker to re-key and retransmit the entry in the legacy Automated Commercial System, creating more work without any additional compensation. Others are holding back on investing resources into ACE until a deadline is announced, said Hoeger, who called this approach “dangerous and imprudent.” A perception exists that FDA data requirements are not yet firm, though Hoeger has heard otherwise, she said. Other issues include conflicting status messages for multi-line entries, a new requirement that low-value quarterly post-entry amendments (PEAs) be keyed in, and the continued lack of an automated invoice interface. CBP’s latest timeline says most PGAs will be requires in “summer 2016,” band includes no timeframe for the FDA deadline.
Speaking for brokers, COAC member Amy Magnus of A.N. Deringer said brokers need to know when they will be required to submit data for PGAs in ACE so they can plan their training and programming efforts. Brokers still don’t know in what order agencies will become mandatory and how they should tailor their implementation efforts accordingly. Magnus noted that brokers are still faced with troubling hiccups when submitting FDA entries, particularly for land border shipments with short lead times, and need more information on PGA requirements for Section 321 entries following the recent increase of the de minimis limit to $800.
According to Deborah Augustin, director of CBP’s ACE Business Office, CBP is “preparing to announce” it deployment schedule “within the next couple of weeks.” FDA is working on “final coordination” with other agencies before it makes its announcement, she said. Meanwhile, in a second recommendation adopted at the April 27 meeting, the COAC called for the Border Interagency Executive Council to be made permanent, “with a continued focus on cross-agency collaboration with the goal of promoting economic competitiveness through enhanced trade facilitation and enforcement.”