In response to industry members and other stakeholders expressing concern about their readiness to meet the February 28 mandatory filing deadline of all entries in ACE (Automated Commercial Environment), the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has announced a new staggered timeline for compliance.

CBP said that the updated timeline continues to align with the previously announced deadline of December 2016 for full implementation of the Single Window via ACE, when the legacy ACS system is disabled. However, there are now key dates between February 28 and December that allow for a slightly more gradual rollout of compliance for some transactions in ACE.

For more information on dates and impacts, visit http://www.cbp.gov/trade/automated

CBP has previously extended the deadline for mandatory filing of all electronic entries in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) program, most recently to February 28, 2016. Those extensions were requested by WB Skinner, among others, to ensure stakeholders’ readiness.

WB Skinner encourages all importers to make sure that their brokers are prepared for exclusive use of the ACE program as soon as possible.

“We have been working with ACE since its inception, and are already filing almost all of our customers’ entry summaries in the new system,” said Bill Skinner, WB Skinner President. “We are participating in pilots and testing functionality before it is even available to the rest of the trade. WB Skinner leads the way in ACE Implementation and Training.”