Washington, DC - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has passed another ACE transition with the mandatory filing of data for the Food and Drug Administration in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).  This transition went smoothly, with no significant issues reported.  The number of transactions filed in ACE continues to increase.  As of June 17, more than 95 percent of all cargo imported into the United States was processed electronically in ACE.

“CBP is very pleased with the results of our mandatory ACE transitions to date, including our most recent transition on June 15th.  To ensure trade filers were prepared for this transition, CBP and FDA worked closely to conduct a series of trade filing exercises to iron out any FDA filing issues in advance of June 15th,” said CBP Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske.

ACE is the “Single Window” through which businesses electronically transmit required information to the U.S. Government, giving trade stakeholders earlier access to shipment data while speeding the flow of legitimate trade. ACE will also help reduce costs for businesses and government.

The next key milestone in the transition to ACE/Single Window is July 23, when filers will be required to file in ACE electronic entries (cargo release) and corresponding entry summaries for the remaining entry types, which covers the transition of quota to ACE. After July 23, filing of entries and their corresponding entry summaries can no longer be submitted through CBP’s legacy system, the Automated Commercial System (ACS), and can only be submitted to ACE.

In the effort to meet the President’s 2014 Single Window Executive Order, CBP will continue to work with Partner Government Agency as well as trade stakeholders to deliver all core trade processing capabilities by the end of December 2016.