CBP Releases its December 31, 2005 Quarterly Report to Congress on ACE (Part III - Final)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to its Web site its quarterly report on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled Report to Congress on the Automated Commercial Environment. This report covers the October 1, 2005 - December 31, 2005 period.

CBP states that this report provides an update on ACE accomplishments, challenges, fiscal status, and upcoming program milestones. CBP notes that this report also addresses the ongoing CBP efforts to integrate ACE with other systems and engage other government agencies to participate in the ACE/International Trade Data System (ITDS).

This is Part III, the final part of a multi-part series of summaries on CBP's quarterly report to Congress on ACE and highlights appendices on ACE implementation and capabilities, as well as the ACE schedule, as of December 31, 2005.

According to CBP's report, the following is an outline of the features in future ACE releases, including CBP's current projections for its full deployment nationwide (referred to as Full Operational Capability (FOC) by CBP):

Future ACE Secure Cargo Management Capabilities (as of 12/31/05)

Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR, Release 5)

Master Data and Enhanced Accounts

(FOC 01/29/07)

• All account types, including broker, carrier, Foreign Trade Zone operator, Container Examination Station, Container Freight Station, importer, surety, etc.
• Program participation automation for C-TPAT Administrative messaging
• Master and reference data in ACE

Entry Summary and Revenue

(FOC 11/01/07)

• Entry summary and team review
• Post-release processing
• Quota
• Initial protest
• Reconciliation
• Bond sufficiency
• Finance processing
• Revenue and refund processing
• Billing and payment processing (including cash, Electronic Funds Transfer, and lockbox)
• Maintain CBP and non-CBP licenses, permits, and certificates
• Program participation automation for Managed Accounts and Container Security Initiative

E-Manifest: All Modes & Cargo Security (Release 6)

E-Manifest: Rail and Sea

(FOC 12/29/07)

• Cargo manifest processing for sea/rail modes of transportation and conversion of cargo control databases to multi-modal format
• Initial Multi-Modal Manifest reporting
• New JAVA ("Windows") base presentation for CBP internal users
• Enhanced information reporting and cargo control capabilities (vessel stowage plan, expended inter-modal event reporting by trade partners)
• Enhanced data sharing with Participating Government Agencies (PGAs)

E-Manifest: Air

(FOC 10/01/08)

• Cargo manifest processing and shared multi-modal database with sea/rail modes of transportation
• Enhanced data sharing with PGAs

E-Manifest: Enhanced Tracking

(FOC 07/01/09)

• Modernization of Cargo Selectivity "entry" processing (cargo release) in ACE
• Accept all major entry types

Exports & Cargo Control (Release 7)

(FOC 01/31/10)

Drawback, Protest, and Importer Activity Summary Statement (IASS)

• Drawback
• Enhanced Protest
• IASS
• U.S. Principal Party of Interest Accounts

Final Exports and Manifest Cargo, Transactions and Enforcement

• Manifest, e-Release, enforcement, and tracking for mail, hand-carry, and pipeline
• Export processing (modernization of deployed Automated Export System application)

Future ACE Screening & Targeting (S&T) Capabilities (as of 12/31/05)

Targeting Foundation (S2)

(FOC 10/28/06)

• Extended criteria management and execution for entry summary related screening
• Initial targeting analysis foundation and criteria impact assessment
• Access to targeting analysis tools (i.e., Request for Information workflow, link analysis, and statistical analysis)
• Integration of commercial data sources

Advanced Targeting (S3)

(FOC 03/22/07)

• Extended targeting functionality
• Extended screening capability to include additional areas (e.g., drawback, protests, reconciliation)
• Support for inter-modal manifest
• In-bond and warehouse movements
• Completion of the risk management circle
• Feedback loop
• Automation rules
• Bayesian network and analysis
• Cluster analysis and pattern recognition tools
• Enhanced criteria management and criteria impact assessment

Full Screening and Targeting (S4)

(FOC 01/06/08)

• Provide full functionality for all modes of transportation and all transactions
• Full targeting and analysis platform
• Complete S&T capability for all PGAs
• Exports
• Artificial intelligence/neural nets
• Geo-spatial visualization
• Recommended actions

(See ITT's Online Archives or 06/20/06 and 06/21/06 news, 06062010 and 06062110, for Parts I and II.)

December 31, 2005 ACE quarterly report available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/ace/newsletters/quarterly_reports/ace_report_to_congress_122005.ctt/ace_report_to_congress_122005.pdf.