see also: in August 2006 News Releases:   CBP Miami Field Office Tropical Storm Ernesto Advisory # 4   CBP Atlanta Field Office   CBP Border Patrol Agents Arrest Convicted Gang Member   CBP Miami Field Office Tropical Storm Ernesto Advisory #3   Customs and Border Protection to Staff Marinas in South Florida During Labor Day Weekend   CBP Tampa Field Office Tropical Storm Ernesto Advisory #1   CBP Miami Field Office Tropical Storm Ernesto Advisory #2 ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers

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Chicago, IL—U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will hold its first conference on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) on August 15-17, 2006 at the Westin Michigan Avenue hotel in downtown Chicago. ACE is the new CBP trade processing system that supports national security and modernizes trade processing.

The Chicago conference is expected to attract more than 550 participants. It is the first in a series of educational forums that CBP plans to hold in an effort to provide information on ACE and assist importers, brokers and truck carriers in establishing ACE accounts.

The ACE truck cargo system is now operating at all southern land border ports, much of the northern border, and will eventually cover all land border ports. This system provides CBP with the capability to collect electronic manifests for truck cargo. It also provides the trade community with the capability to comply with the Trade Act of 2002 requirement for the electronic transmission of advance manifest information to CBP.

CBP will make the filing of e-manifests mandatory on a port-by-port basis during 2007. Notices announcing mandatory e-manifest dates for each port will be published in the Federal Register at least 90 days in advance of implementation. The information will also be posted on the CBP Web site.

Carriers can file their own e-manifest or they can hire someone to file it for them. Filers can transmit their e-manifest online using CBP’s ACE Secure Data Portal at no charge, or they can use an electronic data interchange or EDI, a common e-commerce tool.

Carriers, importers and brokers interested in using the ACE Secure Data Portal must establish an ACE account.

For information on how to establish an ACE account, e-mail CBP at acenow@dhs.gov.

Information on the ACE Exchange Conference is available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/ace_ex_conf/. Registration for the Chicago conference is now closed. The next ACE Exchange Conference will be held in Tucson, Ariz. October 30 to November 3. To be placed on the waiting list for the Arizona conference, e-mail CBP.CSPO@dhs.gov.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control, and protection of our Nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.