U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) recently released an updated timeline for the mandatory use of the Automated Commercial Environment (“ACE”).  Customs has been working with partner government agencies and the trade to create a “single window” to track imports and exports and to determine admissibility of merchandise.

The new dates are as follows:

November 1, 2015:  Use of ACE is allowed for electronic entry and entry summary filings.

February 28, 2016:  All electronic entries and entry summaries must be filed in ACE.  In addition, electronic Food and Drug Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Lacey Act) data must be filed in ACE.

July 2016:  ACE must be used for filing AMS, APHIS Core, ATF, CDC, DCMA, DDTC, DEA E&C, EPA, FSIS, FWS, NMFS and TTB data.  (The FWS requirement is contingent on FWS having its regulatory revisions in place by the July 2016 publication of the CBP Final Rule  eliminating hybrid filings.)

December 2016:  Full implementation of the Single Window via ACE

[View source.]