ACE Cargo Release Filings Still at Only 10 Percent, Says CBP Official

BALTIMORE -- Despite rapidly approaching deadlines for implementation of the Automated Commercial Environment by the trade community, the latest data from CBP still shows only about 10 percent of cargo release submissions are being done in ACE, said Steve Hilsen, CBP’s lead executive for the single window, at the East Coast Trade Symposium on Nov. 5. Though part of the reason for the low adoption rate is the incomplete implementation of partner government agency (PGA) requirements, there’s “a lot of cargo releases out there” that aren’t subject to PGAs, he said.

Echoing a theme running throughout the conference, Hilsen said that “now is the time to put your toe in the water” and begin some filing in ACE. Cargo release is “not quicksand,” he said, and filers are free to test a limited set of individual transactions under different circumstances without going full bore. Now is the time for filers to begin understanding ACE’s impact on their business processes, said Hilsen. CBP can currently give filers individual attention as they need, but come February the agency probably won’t have the “bandwidth,” he said. CBP knows who is filing and who isn’t, and has begun making phone calls to find out why some aren’t participating, including personal phone calls from Hilsen and Maria Luisa Boyce, CBP’s senior advisor for trade engagement, to large importers and filers.