On Monday, October 1, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a press release announcing the successful transition of all sea and rail manifests to the new Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) 24 hours prior to the September 29 deadline, making ACE the only CBP-approved electronic data interchange for sea and rail manifests.

CBP explains in the press release that "The Automated Commercial Environment is a multi-year project to modernize the business processes essential to securing U.S. borders, speeding the flow of legitimate shipments, and targeting illicit goods."

The move to ACE was announced on March 29, 2012, allowing for a six month transition period. Trade parties that were involved in this transition were ocean carriers, rail carriers and Automated Broker Interface software developers.

The CBP press release is available online here.