The biggest change expected in the customs brokerage community during 2015 is the implementation of the Automated Commercial Environment, the electronic system for commercial trade processing. ACE will replace the legacy ABI system after well over two decades in development.
The immediate challenge is for brokers to start transmitting some of their entry filings through ACE. This creates a financial burden because companies have to operate with two different systems. Compounding this fact, brokerage firms must decide how to allocate the necessary financial and personnel resources to develop, test, and train their employees on ACE. The brokerage industry is experiencing many external pressures that prevent companies from giving this issue the appropriate resources necessary to properly transition to the new electronic system. Unfortunately, companies that are not ready to transition to ACE will have a difficult time after Nov. 1, 2015. Those that do should see some better turn times on releases, enabling them to better serve their clients. As a supplement to ACE, the International Trade Data System is also being developed as a means for electronic data to be transmitted to all the participating government agencies that have release functionality on imports and exports. This will enable all import and export transactions to be paperless. The days of hand delivering documents to Customs and the other government agencies will be over. This will have a direct impact on the messenger services that have faithfully served the brokerage and forwarding companies for many years. The personal relationships that developed in the past with the local customs employees will decline because there will no longer be a reason to visit the local office.
Charles Riley, President, New York/New Jersey Foreign Freight Forwarders & Brokers Association