The Office of Information and Technology has planned training sessions for 41 importers and for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) users of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) who handle their accounts. These 27 CBP account managers and 41 importers had their first formal look at the ACE Secure Data Portal at the Trade Support Network (TSN) plenary session in February 2003.

"CBP account managers and the first 41 importer users benefit from being involved with the TSN in many ways," says Teddy Rees, Account Manager, CBP, Seattle, Wash. "We are the actual users and it is great to be included in this development, test, and feedback stage. As ACE pioneers, we'll make sure we get a product that meets our needs."

The goal of the CBP Modernization Program and the TSN is to build and maintain an efficient, user-friendly product that helps protect the nation's borders while facilitating commercial trade needs. The TSN works hand-in-hand with CBP and affords the trade community a genuine conduit for innovative thinking, constructive criticism, and visionary ideas.

How does the TSN work?
Since its establishment in 1994, the TSN has held several meetings between CBP and the trade community. The TSN membership brings a trade perspective to the CBP modernization effort. Eight committees - Account Management, Entry Process, Exports, International Trade Data System (ITDS), Legal/Policy, Multi-Modal Manifest, Revenue, and Transition - work on an ongoing basis to develop detailed user requirements and to identify legal and policy issues.

For more information about the TSN, access the CBP Modernization Web site at http://www.cbp.gov/.

The TSN consists of more than 150 members representing trade associations, importers, exporters, brokers, carriers, sureties, and other commercial users of CBP systems. Additionally, the ITDS committee, whose responsibility is to coordinate the communication between the TSN source committees and the participating government agencies, provides the membership with input from other government agencies. TSN members provide input from the trade community in the design and development of modernization projects, such as ACE. This trade perspective allows the CBP Modernization Office to build a system that meets the needs of the trade community as well as those of CBP.