U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is expected to release an interim final rule setting forth mandatory Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) requirements within the next six months, said Dominique Tarpey, section chief for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Global Supply Chain and Canine Initiatives, during a trade conference on Wednesday.
ACAS is jointly administered by CBP and TSA.
Put in place late 2010 after terrorists in Yemen attempted to plant printer cartridges laden with explosives on board cargo aircraft, ACAS has remained a pilot program ever since.
ACAS participants must provide CBP seven shipment data elements, including names and addresses of the shipper and consignee, total package count and weight, and cargo description, as well as the air waybill number.
The information, which does not have to be 100 percent clean of typos, is transmitted much earlier than other data required for regular customs clearance. The goal is to allow CBP to perform risk-based targeting on the data well before the cargo can be loaded onto U.S.-bound aircraft.
The ACAS pilot previously was expected to conclude in July.
Mandatory ACAS data requirements will be required at the last point of loading before cargo is shipped to the United States, Tarpey said during the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association (NCBFAA) 2018 Annual Conference in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
TSA is looking at the role of overseas customs brokers as it works with CBP to develop mandatory ACAS rulemaking, she said, as the U.S. government doesn’t regulate foreign forwarders, but has several mutual recognition agreements.
While ACAS requirements will only apply to air carriers, freight forwarders should file complete and timely ACAS information to both air carriers and the U.S. government, as that should help forwarders to resolve errors and data referrals early and mitigate potential negative impacts of screening referrals, according to Airlines for America Cargo Services Managing Director Elizabeth Merritt.
“We don’t know yet what requirements the IFR, interim final rule, is going to place on forwarders that transmit data,” she said. “We actively try to encourage CBP to not make your typical bonding requirement to be able to transmit to a CBP system, and instead to look at things like … regulated agent status in another country, things like that.”
Merritt noted that ACAS is a very agile system, whereby CBP and TSA “dial things up” based on the risk of things around the world.
Donna Mullins, member of the NCBFAA board of directors and CEO of Mullins International Solutions, said she would be surprised if a bonding requirement wasn’t included in the forthcoming IFR, but added, “I’m just not sure how it’s going to work. If CBP and TSA can’t regulate the forwarder or foreign country, I’m just not sure whose bond is going up.”