07/22/2016
Quota Entry Processing Change Notice:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is making changes that may impact your shipments of products subject to quota. CBP will be transitioning the quota module from their legacy system, Automated Commercial System (ACS), to their new system, Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).
Deployment and mandatory filing of quota entries in ACE will begin on Saturday, July 23, 2016. As of this date, all quota processing will occur in ACE. Entries can still be filed in ACS until, and on, Friday, July 22. However, on Saturday, July 23, all new quota entries will have to be filed in ACE and ACS will be decommissioned.
As with any new deployment from CBP, we expect technical problems to occur during the transition from ACS to ACE. Since the cargo release would be filed in one system (ACS) and actual clearance processing would occur in another (ACE), there is the probability of technical issues that may impact the clearance of your shipments during this transition.
CBP has scheduled this major transition on a weekend, when the ACE Help Desk is not available and there is very limited technical support available from Customs technichans.
Therefore, to avoid delays at the border, we recommend that you adjust your shipping schedule:
On or before July 22: Any quota shipments may cross the border
Saturday, July 23: Do Not Ship quota class merchandise
Sunday, July 24: Do Not Ship quota class merchandise
Monday, July 25: Resume normal shipping
Normal processing should resume on Monday, July 25 when CBP technical staff are available for any troubleshooting that may be required.
For any food product that is subject to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, we always recommend those shipments cross the border during normal FDA business hours, Monday-Friday, 7:00am--11:00pm. While FDA does not have the legal authority to restrict hours of entry, there are clear advantage of clearing while FDA personnel are present, including prompt review and sampling, if necessary. Crossing when FDA is not on site may lead to delays in FDA release, as well as the possibility of a request to re-delivery the shipment to the port of entry.
If you have any question, please do not hesitate to call us at (360) 332-4552 or email us [email protected].