As part of their Trade Modernization initiative, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will be transitioning all In-bond transactions from the current Automated Broker Interface (ABI) to the new Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system, which will become official on September 29, 2012.

With the transition from ABI to ACE, new changes in the process have been introduced. CSMS #12-000343, published by CBP on August 31, explains that "In the legacy Automated Broker Interface (ABI) a subsequent in-bond may be transmitted via the In-bond Transaction (QP) after the first arrival posting for the previous in-bond (even if that arrival is not for the full in-bond quantity) but in ACE, subsequent in-bonds may not be transmitted via QP until the previous in-bond is completely arrived."

As a result of this change, industry testing of the new process has shown there to be the potential for delays in movement of cargo in cases where the carrier issues an in-bond for multiple Bills of Lading moving to one destination.  Specifically, when the carrier has transmitted one in-bond that covers multiple bills of lading, the transmission of a subsequent in-bond will need to wait for the arrival of all cargo covered under that initial in-bond.  If the cargo arrives at the inland destination at different times, there may be delays because a subsequent in-bond cannot be issued until the original one has been closed or fully “arrived”.  This situation will likely impact cargo being transported under bond for clearance in a port other than the initial destination or cargo being exported under bond.

Currently, there have been no similar issues reported with clearances transmitted to CBP for cargo covered by in-bonds with multiple Bills of Lading.  In these cases, cargo is released by CBP and available although other Bills of Lading covered by the in-bond may not have arrived at the inland destination.

Expeditors is working closely with our transportation service providers to understand their capabilities under the new process established for transition to ACE and minimize the impact to our customers.

CSMS #12-00343 is available online here.

Other CBP-issued information is available here.